909-744-5419

Anti Advertisements

In this day and age people tend to be obsessed with making money. So much so that a lot of the time they disregard the comfort of their customers or visitors. Not only in the real world but in the realms of the Internet as well. Mainly I’m going to be talking about the Internet and it’s disease of ads. Now don’t get me wrong, I love ads! I sometimes use them to find useful info and I regularly use them to promote this site and other web services. However, I do not promote, encourage, click on, or use invasive advertising techniques. I’m seeing this more and more, even in websites that used to be legitimate. In the next paragraph I’m going to lay out some examples of bad practices; that I think we all need to boycott and ultimately crush.

• Example 1: Pop-ups. They have been around for years and now are only growing more vicious. Denying users content merely for the profit of a few cents. Sometimes sites are so prominent with them that normal browsing is halted due to the amount of pop-ups. (This includes pop-downs too.)
• Example 2: Spam. Yes, the method of massive advertising that has been nicknamed after canned meat. The big problem is when companies like Myspace start spamming their own users. It is one thing to get it in the mail, but when your email is so overrun by spam, there needs to be some regulation.
• Example 3: Ad Tracking. I was recently disturbed when YouTube started “suggesting” videos about Linux, based on the fact that I’ve uploaded a screencast or two about Linux. Who gives Google the right to track your activity and then assume you want to click something? If I want to find a video, I’ll do it myself.

Assuming these practices continue, the Internet could easily be a horrifying place in just a few years. I personally give my vote to Firefox’s “Do Not Track” and to sites who allow non-invasive ads (such as Craigslist, and Ink Ignite’s sidebar links). Since the Internet has almost no rules or regulations, who decides how far Google will go to make you click ads, or how much effort Facebook will take to make you see the latest app. I’ve been considering starting an anti-ad campaign to promote sites who use proper techniques and don’t leave their users feeling violated. Ink Ignite as a company is refusing to use advertising systems which track users; you will not see adsense present, you will not see pop-ups, you will not see spam, and we will never force you to click an ad on our site.