Thursday, November 09, 2006

Bad Technorati. Bad.

My opinion of Technorati has dropped. Precipitously. I'm in the library at moment and when I visited Technorati just now, an ad started talking, loudly. Everyone around me heard it as I raced to shut down my browser.

Internet ads that immediately produce audio--without the user's consent--are absolutely the worst sort imaginable. Worse than the most godawful blinking flash banners. I don't care how much extra revenue these ads produce for Technorati; they demonstrate an utter lack of respect for their customers.

7 comments:

Jonathan said...

Thanks for the tip; I just installed it! I like it..I've just added wildcards to block the ads on Technorati and MySpace. I really don't mind ads in general - I actually find them interesting. But it is nice to cull out the ones that cross the line of intrusiveness. Some websites (MySpace and now Technorati) have definitely crossed that line.

Jonathan said...

You know, I get that same impression from TV ads. I own a TV but never watch it unless at someone else's place. And I get that same sensory overload you're talking about.

Jonathan said...

Yeah that's smart. Hopefully the folks sitting by me in Foster found it entertaining.

Anonymous said...

I just hate it when things like that happened. So like sarah, I end up turning the volume off. I also hate the pop-ups and the small window that follows thru when you scroll the sidebar. But i don't hate ads as well. I have them once in my blog but decided to take them off coz I never erned a lot, lol.

Anonymous said...

Most of the Web sites I've seen using intrusive audio ads are struggling. *cough* *cough*

Along a similar vein, going to Web sites (like, say, ESPN) and getting hit with audio enabled Flash is just as annoying.

While browsing on my Mac, I use the Firefox flashblock extension...while I don't like intrusive ads, the marketer in me doesn't mind other types.

Vanessa said...

I absolutely hate that ad with the yellow smilie that says "hellooo."

Jonathan said...

Joy, I checked out the FlashBlock page -- I like how it says "Flashblock is an extension...that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content..." I might give that a shot. And yes, marketing is fascinating, and I like seeing what's out there. I'm looking forward to my marketing class next quarter.

Vanessa, I think that was the ad... I believe I saw a terrible yellow smiley face as I closed my browser.