Banner Ban

No, this is not a plug for the now out of date Tony Hawk's Underground (although I suppose I can not avoid the exposure). This, here, is a banner ad. Yet another friendly little gif that clutters the pages of the world. Some sources, like Darren Rose of Problogger (nothing against Darren, just the post) or AdBrite, would have you believe that Banner ads will provide and excellent form of branding, and great click through rates. This is basically completely untrue, at least for 99% of ads. I will not deny that there exist some good banner ads, the Tony Hawk one above is a great example. Unfortunately it is lost amongst a sea of really dreadful and invasive ads, things like "Click the Fart Button" and "Outrun the stick figure to win $1,000,000". Really truly bad ads that have scared us away from all banners, so much so that I actually avert my eyes when i see one.

But what really turns people off about banner ads is the danger, thats right, danger. Banner ads are legitimately risky to click. Why? Because in doing so you allow the linked site to send you anything they want. Here are a few links to give you some idea of what I mean. When the ad is clicked it forwards you to a site, and allows it to set upon you with all the cookies and spyware it could desire. If you doubt me, give it a try, I'm sure your computer will move 35% slower and be 100% less secure than before.

Now not all banners carry malicious Trojan viruses, but it only takes one infection to turn you away from all. I predict that if something is not done about this one click infection problem soon, banners as we know them will disappear from the internet all together. Not that it would be a bad thing.