Page 219 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 4

Another way information sites use text ads is to include them in the middle of the
running text of a story as a separate, blocked-off paragraph. These paragraphs are
sometimes labeled as advertisements so that readers understand that they are looking at
a link to an ad. This use of inline text ads is particularly common in online magazines
devoted to specific industries. On such sites, these inline text ads are seen less as a
194 nuisance than as a handy resource that leads an interested reader to more information from
companies that sell products and services mentioned in or related to the topic of the article.

Other Web Ad Formats
The steady decline in the effectiveness of banner ads has prompted advertisers to
explore other formats for Web ads. One of these formats is the pop-up ad. A pop-up ad
is an ad that appears in its own window when the user opens or closes a Web page. The
window in which the ad appears does not include the usual browser controls. The only
way to dismiss the ad is to find and click a small, often hard-to-identify, close button or
link that might appear anywhere in the window. Many users find pop-up ads extremely
annoying. A particularly irritating variation on the pop-up ad technique occurs at Web
sites that open more than one pop-up ad when a user leaves the site or closes the
browser. If the user does not act quickly enough, the browser spawns multiple windows
and can even crash the computer.
Another type of pop-up ad is called the pop-behind ad. A pop-behind ad is a pop-up
ad that is followed very quickly by a command that returns the focus to the original
browser window. The result is an ad that is parked behind the user’s browser, waiting to
appear when the browser is closed.
Despite user objections to pop-up ads (in all their variations), an increasing number of
Web sites are using them as a way of delivering a larger advertising image in a more forceful
way. Some users have responded by using ad-blocking software that prevents banner ads
and pop-up ads from loading. Most Web browsers can be configured not to display many of
these ads; however, any site that uses methods for navigation that are similar to those used
to deliver ads (such as pop-up information windows) cannot operate as intended in the
reconfigured browser. Some researchers have found that beyond annoying users, pop-up
ads actually create lasting bad will among users toward the company whose products are
depicted in the ads. Despite these findings, many advertisers find pop-up ads to be effective
tools for drawing customers to their sites and continue to use them.
Another intrusive ad format is the interstitial ad. When a user clicks a link to
load a page, the interstitial ad opens in its own browser window, instead of the page
that the user intended to load (the general meaning of the word “interstitial” is
something that comes between two other things). Many interstitial ads close
automatically, allowing the intended page to open in the existing browser window.
Other interstitials require the user to click a button before they close. Because they
open in a full-size browser window, interstitial ads offer the advertiser even more
space than the pop-up ad format. These ads also completely cover the Web page
that the user was trying to see. Many users find interstitials even more annoying
than pop-up ads because they are larger and a more forceful interruption of the
Web-browsing experience.

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