Internet Advertising: Why We Need It

Internet advertising, without it we wouldn’t have the internet. Informational sites need it to cover the cost of hosting, domain registration, web design, etc. Profitable websites, websites that are selling something, need it to bring people to their site.

Internet ads can be very annoying but you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water, some advertising can be actually be very helpful for the web surfer. However, the ways that it is presented could be more friendly or can it? You may find that you are reading an article and suddenly, sometimes right in the middle of a sentence, an ad is in the next line. Surely can’t the webmaster choose to place the ad at the end of the article? Well if they did would as many people see it, if they have read the last sentence in the article what would keep them scrolling down?

It isn’t just placement that can come off as annoying and bothersome. The design of ads themselves are often very flashy, in order to get your attention. So now not only are you trying to read your article and you suddenly are thrown off by the placement of the ad but as you attempt to read the sentences that surround it you can’t help but see the darn flashing lights in your peripheral vision. The ad did it’s job though, it got your attention, twice. If it is something that you are interested in you are going to click it. Would that have happen if it was gentle to the eye and off to the side? Even if it did have something that was of interest to you would have seen it? If you don’t see the ad then you can’t click them.

Perhaps the ad is more subtle, rather than being a button maybe it is a text link. You may have noticed that some sites have ads embedded in the content. If you are reading an article about dolphins you may noticed that some of the keywords in the article are a different color and are underlined twice. As you are reading your cursor accidently hovers over one of the keywords and suddenly a small window of information pops up. Here you are reading about dolphin life expectancy and as your cursor hovers over the word life you suddenly have an add for the Milton Bradley game. Now you have lost your place and are a little bit annoyed. Now your cursor hovers over the word dolphin and a similar ad come up except it is for a place where you can get free dolphin pictures. You may have been interested in this but was the method really the best way to tell you about it.

Then there are pop-ups. Why do they have pop-ups, they open a whole new browser and for some of us this slows are computer down and takes up our valuable time, why would this be necessary? Well to say that it is truly necessary is in question but pop-ups are a popular form of internet advertising because they isolate the ad. The browser only contains the ad, the ability to open a web page in an entirely different browser that you are currently in can be extremely helpful and convenient but as far as ads go it is very unhelpful and inconvenient to have them popping up.

Annoyance isn’t the biggest problem with internet advertising. Layer ads, as they are called, are disguised to look like a message from your computer system. They ultimately can trick you into downloading software full of adware and spyware or even worst possibly viruses. I have never encountered one myself, and only know one person who has, but I am especially thankful for having anti-virus software on my computer.

I am not justifying sneaky or unpleasant internet advertising. I am merely stating why we have to have internet advertising, even if at times it can be quite infuriating it is ultimately necessary. Hopefully though the more peasant ads will be the ones we encounter.