rincey - 10:37 am on Mar 3, 2006 (gmt 0)

They serve no useful purpose to Joe Surfer, existing only to make money for the site owner

This is what they share with most TV programs, magazines and at least 80% of my daily newspaper. Sounds like you are talking about the advertising industry as a whole :)

I think MFAs are just another attempt to create more advertising space, mostly targeted to the unexperienced surfers.

We tried, but we can't beat them, most if the times not even those who steal our content. So I tend to ignore them or take them as a source of inspiration for new ideas in data extraction techniques.