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WebAdvertising
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesThe state of WebAdvertising is bad right now. Very bad. There are sites that exist because of banner ad networks (such as eFront, which has been having problems lately), but that model doesn't seem to be working as well. The model ("provide content for free, then sell ad space") should work well. Television works on this model. Free weeklys work on this model. But they don't seem to be working for the web banner model.
In fact, people are actively hostile against them. I can think of 4 different ways to control web banners and pop-ups (user CSS, putting mangled entrys in the host file for doubleclick and other banner sites, disabling javascript and using a proxy server), and I know people who use all of them (I like CSS, so I use that).
In an advanced newspaper layout course I took in a past life, I was told that the ads of a newspaper were just as news as the news part, that the newspaper sold just as much for the ads as for the news. As a good, political news-editorial track journalism student, I found this to be a problem. Actually, I found it impossible. Later that day, to kill time, I pulled out a copy of Maximum Rock'n'Roll, a punk zine I used to get on occasion, and said to myself, "Hmmm, Fugazi has a new album out. I should get that." And I received enlightenment. It is true. News is information you want to know but don't know yet. Focused media can do that in the "news" space (for a Palm user. the newly-announced backdoor that bypasses the access password) and in the "ad" space (Palm's coming out with the way-cool m505! Handspring has the Visor Edge coming out soon!) There are some banner ads that present useful information like that. OReillyNet? has banner ads that talk about recent articles, and that has an attractive thing, but that's one voice in the wilderness.
DaveWiner linked to a [mailing list discussion] talking about how RichSiteSummary can be used as an ad, because, unlike banner ads, people actually want to read them. But this isn't usable by everybody. It could be used more than it is. (Red Hat creating a RichSiteSummary of the errata lists for bugfixes and security exploits would be nice. Microsoft doing the same thing would be even nicer but more unlikely, in my opinion.)
At core, a company web site is a company ad. A friend pointed out that for tech companies, it is less the case. I contend the opposite. An operating systems company that openly and promptly handles security issues by putting them on the site tells users and potential users "this is a company that cares about doing these things right, and thus is worthy of my business." A hardware company that makes it easy for customers to find and upload new drivers on a variety of operating systems tells potential customers "this company cares about its work, so I can trust their card in my system." (This paragraph fits the subject, but not the thoughts of the preceeding paragraphs. How to integrate? )