Ooqa Ooqa - more intrusive (abusive?) advertising..

Rich media ad company comes out with new offering to take over your browser

[skibum]

As if banners, rich media, interstitials, superstitials, pop ups, pop unders, didn't make it unpleasant enough to surf the web, another copany has come out with somthing that according to the article [msnbc.com] can brand your browser with the advertisers messages and logo while you are on the site.

It may stay with you after you leave, and may alter the functions of the standard navigation bar on your browser all without your permission and without installing any software on your machine.

It sounds like there may be a few user centered benefits in the form of adding useful features to the browser while on a site, bu they should probably just be part of the site anyway.

[rcjordan]

Add BLU's to the list, too.

If you think you’ve seen it all – talking banners, moving towers, flying birds – get ready for this one. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com today introduced a new option for advertisers called the Brand Launch Unit.

WSJ Debuts BLUs [mediapost.com]

[skibum]

I seem to remember seeing those one one of the other major news sites, Cnet, ABC. It takes up most of the space "above the fold" initially and then compresses after a couple seconds.

[msgraph]

There is one on Iwon that pops around your screen with your registered first name in the text bubble. The text says something like "Name can you hear me?"

[jammy]

"takes up most of the space "above the fold" initially and then compresses"

i was visiting thetimes.co.uk - they had a full standard browser window, semi-transparent advert - the whole lower browser window gently "filled with water" then a face wearing a snorkle moved in from the left.

the main article that i was trying to read was still barely-visible through the semi-transparent water - but how to get rid of the advert to read the article?? i took a screen shot, then closed the browser window.

on the screenshot i later noticed that there was small dark blue text on the blue water background on the far left saying "close"... hardly user friendly!

[mayor]

I'm going to start looking for good software that automatically douses the spam advertising from pop ups, pop unders, browser control, etc, etc. These forms of advertising, IMO, are degenerating to the realms of computer viruses. And I'm going to look for an affiliate program for that ad spam-snuffing software and make a fortune promoting it.

[brotherhood of LAN]

It seems like the more annoying banners you are willing to put up, the more they are willing to pay you for its ugliness and intrusion

[tedster]

Is this greed or desperation?

Most likely a nasty mix of the two. Either way, this nonsense is trying to change the web from a public library to a carnival midway. And all of it demonstrates a total lack of grokking what the web is.

grok [verb transitive]

from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally "to drink" and metaphorically "to be one with"

1. To understand. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. When you claim to "grok" some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity.

Defintion adapted from tuxedo.org [tuxedo.org]