Does Cisco really believe that I’m going to feel positively about this ad that covers up more than half of what I really want to read? Ugh. How annoying. Someone there needs to read some Seth Godin…
Does Cisco really believe that I’m going to feel positively about this ad that covers up more than half of what I really want to read? Ugh. How annoying. Someone there needs to read some Seth Godin…
Yes, but it pays for the FREE site you are reading. I think the Page Curl Script is a very smart idea. It works well, it only curls a small corner NOT covering up your content, then IF you click on the curl, THEN it covers up some of your content. This is smart from a web design standpoint!
I totally agree, Scott (and respectfully disagree, Hayden). The fact that it’s annoying a user is enough to make it an out and out usability issue. Just for fun, since usability is a personal favorite topic of mine, here’s some related articles that would back you up:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-skills.html
Skills of web users are improving, but, in general, unexpected or unusual situations (like invasive ads) tend to be difficult for users to manage.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html
Banner blindness refers to the fact that most users mostly ignore the content or message of anything that look like an ad.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/annoyances.html
Annoyances (like invasive ads) cause sites to come across as “sloppy and unprofessional” or outright “jarring”.
The trick to monetizing content is to figure out what your users actually want. They don’t want invasive ads, animated ads, interstitial ads, ads with sound, etc. They might want basic ads for products the author strongly supports, or contests for prizes from sponsors, or they might want to buy things like t-shirts and printed copies of content.