In-text ads on anandtech going too far?

[t0mmyb0y]

It used to be that hyperlinked text took you somewhere useful. Now the words take you to ads for microsoft business solutions. Just take a look at the words "email" and "services" on this page..

While I'm all for a free market, don't these ads seem even worse than pop-ups? At least with pop-ups and side banners I can simply ignore or close them. (or use the proxomitron ) These ads are deliberately deceitful and as a result I'm forced to mouse over each one seperately to find out where the real links are...

Am I outta line here?

 

[T3C]

...

 

[SoylentGreen]

Then nef elsewhere.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

You're not out of line, but this isn't the place to raise the issue.

 

[NFS4]

How are they worse than pop-ups?? You don't even have to click on them!!!

COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN about a FREE SERVICE????? Sheesh

 

[LordJezo]

Wow.. I never noticed that before.


Sort of makes the articles feel cheaper.. like you cant trust them as much.

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Wow.. I never noticed that before.


Sort of makes the articles feel cheaper.. like you cant trust them as much.

You're just mad because there's no links to naked men.

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: amnesiac

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Wow.. I never noticed that before.


Sort of makes the articles feel cheaper.. like you cant trust them as much.

You're just mad because there's no links to naked men.

Yea.. or nakid doggies!

 

[t0mmyb0y]

Originally posted by: NFS4
How are they worse than pop-ups?? You don't even have to click on them!!!

COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN about a FREE SERVICE????? Sheesh

It's not anandtech im complaining about. I love everything about it. But this new trend of advertising disturbs me a bit...

And I kind of agree with LordJezo. It makes it seem like the title of the page should be "Anandtech...brought to you by...Microsoft!"

 

[t0mmyb0y]

Originally posted by: FFMCobalt
You're not out of line, but this isn't the place to raise the issue.

Why not?

 

[T3C]

go to the forum issues

 

[SSP]

Yeah, its very annoying. I dont mind ads I never look at or click on, but I clicked on some of those words and they took me to another site, which was a bit annoyig.

 

[t0mmyb0y]

Sorry mods for posting in the wrong forum. I changed my email about the same time you moved the thread. I thought you uncerimoniously banned me! Turns out my password had just been changed. *whew*

 

[Jason Clark]

We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

 

[Lucky]

the textover pops up in a HUGE yellow box. Don't mind it personally.

 

[t0mmyb0y]

Originally posted by: Zuni
We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

The ads, or my posts?

 

[First]

Originally posted by: t0mmyb0y

Originally posted by: Zuni
We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

The ads, or my posts?

LOL, the ads.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Zuni
We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

Heh, am I the only one who is amused by Zuni's posts?

He always makes funny grammar mistakes, but I am confident he's a smart dude so I just always imagine him typing real fast and not paying attention because he's real busy or something.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: Zuni
We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

Heh, am I the only one who is amused by Zuni's posts?

He always makes funny grammar mistakes, but I am confident he's a smart dude so I just always imagine him typing real fast and not paying attention because he's real busy or something.

See, we smart people can't be troubled with such trivial things as grammer or spelling . I think the more technical you are, the harder time you have with simple grammer/spelling. I can spell some of the most insane chemical names you've ever heard of, but I'm completly incapable of spelling common words.

More on subject, is this kind of like that SmartTags thing MS was going to put into officexp then took out at the last minute, then was talking about re-adding with the service pack? It wouldn't be all that annoying if it wasn't for the huge alt-text.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: MrBondI think the more technical you are, the harder time you have with simple grammer/spelling. I can spell some of the most insane chemical names you've ever heard of, but I'm completly incapable of spelling common words.

Hmm, I don't think so, I think it really just depends on the person. I know really smart people who are total grammar (and spelling, mr. "grammer" ) nazis.

 

[Jason Clark]

Yeah, I'm just in a hurry all the time Too much going on.

 

[t0mmyb0y]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: t0mmyb0y

Originally posted by: Zuni
We either going to cut them right down or remove them completely.

The ads, or my posts?

LOL, the ads.

Can you explain a bit better? Did microsoft insert the ads somehow through my IE, or did you guys actually choose to put them in there? What is the difference between cutting them down and removing them?

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

AT ppl put them in there. "cutting down" means having less of them, while "removing them" would be "removing all of them"

 

[Confused]

Use another browser, like MozillaFirebird. which these orange text links don't appear, you don't get popups and is a much better browser, IMO.


I was like "wtf are you talking about" when i opened the link in a new tab (another brilliant thing about Firebird - tabbed browsing! I can't live without it now) i just saw plain text, i had to open it in IE to get the orange text.


/me wubs Firebird


Confused

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: MrBond
More on subject, is this kind of like that SmartTags thing MS was going to put into officexp then took out at the last minute, then was talking about re-adding with the service pack? It wouldn't be all that annoying if it wasn't for the huge alt-text.

Smart tags are in MS Office 2002, and have been since the release (I haven't updated to the SP yet, and I get them whenever I type in dates and addresses and stuff). IIRC, the controversy was over Smart tags in Internet Explorer (and rightfully so, due to security, privacy, and potential abuse reasons), so they ended up taking those out.