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Stop Interstitial Advertising

I posted this rant on Twitter this morning

Dear Internet Advertisers,

Stop with the Interstitial ads that prevent me from looking at content. I don’t mind banner ads, but this constant hijacking of web sites needs to stop. What you are doing is driving me away from those web sites. I’ll either find another source, or just use a news reader (like Google Reader) to get the content.

Site owners, don’t let your advertisers drive away your traffic. Yes they are paying for your site, but if I don’t visit, you don’t get the page view. Demand better advertising methods.

Sincerely, a potential customer.

This method of advertising has gotten so bad that I’ve just about stop visiting several news sites. Yes I can use ad blocking software, but I really don’t want to. For one, it pays for many of these services. And another, normal sidebar or banner advertising is perfectly fine. I’ll see your ad, I may even click through. But hijacking a site is just not okay. I’m not going to way 30 seconds just to read the weather or something simple. Everyone loses when you use this method of advertising.

Even Michael Arrington of TechCrunch dislikes them, especially when they show up on his own site (now owned by AOL). Read: Real Blogs Don’t Have Interstitial Ads