Website Allows Visitors to Hide Ads

Comments

Briliant idea. The idea of breaking the field of vision for most, which totally zones out advertising is a good move. You are at least "forcing" someone to look in the direction of the ad in order to "remove" it, albeit temporarily.

Hold on, Steve. Advertisers will never go for that idea. Despite being an innovative approach, I would expect that most people would miss it entirely, and advertisers will immediately see it. Advertisers will not approve.

I'd be curious as to who came up with the idea. I see that they have a listing of site credits on the site, which points to a company called The Mechanism. Perhaps they might shed a little light as to how they got the magazine to go for such an idea.

Brilliant? No. Superflous is more like it. Even easier than developing a technology to hide those leader boards is this handy little tool on the side of your browser window called a "scroll bar". Use it to scroll down and, Viola! - can't see that leader board anymore. Best part is, it works on just about every site out there. Savvy and not-so-savvy Web users have been doing this for years now.

BroadbandReports.com has had this option for several years.

Hardly pointless, well duh. Clever, yes.

Pointless or Clever, anyone who comes up with novel solutions for keeping advertising out of our face while browsing should be commended. The battle rages on...

Well said. Pip, Pip!

It takes more time to hide the ad then to just skim over it... that and it took me a full 2 seconds to find where you hide the ad. Dumb tech gimmick.

Hey rebecca. I think it's an entertainment magazine site, not a site schooling people on how to hide advertising. If they're using a little tricky code, so be it.

I think your point was well made that the 2 seconds that you took glancing at the ad in the first place to effectively "skip it" made you look at the ad. Case in point. It's not about skipping ads. It's about making the user actually look at it in the first place. The joke's on us.

AHHHH HAAAAA! The truth comes out, addebate. Well played.

It's hidden . . . It's back . . . It's hidden . . . It's back . . . It's hidden ... I can't stop. . . pure genius.

Face it folks, it's an idea that has potential and deserves kudos. whether or not you use a scroll bar, or can't find it-I, personally, haven't seen it done this way. For this mainstream magazine to integrate something clearly unique and different can only be a good thing in the end.

It is always hidden for me... along with a large % of the other ads served to me throughout the day, my adblocker silently zaps it... Norton Internet Security is a great and cheap investment ... do yourself a favor.

2 thoughts:

I agree that on one level it's an interesting ruse to get readers to actually look at the ad, and give Giant some metrics for its advertisers when readers click off the ads.

On the other hand, this replicates to some degree the TiVo effect some advertisers and agencies are growing to actually appreciate. While most are cursing out viewers who skip their commercials, a (very) few are delighted to see data that shows viewers aren't skipping their commercials. Sometimes they're even re-running them.

In effect, Giant is daring its advertisers to come up with ads that will delight its readers.

If agency management and the client grasp this, it's a creative's dream assignment.

I agree, it will force advertisers to step up their game and frankly, it's about time. Kudos to the design firm who came up with the idea.

that is one slooooooooow loading site. No point in hiding the banner. Simple scroll down.

Good points all around. Advertisers are the one's who created the need for pop up blockers and other previously unecessary software inventions. This is just another filtering device to keep the ad folks on thier game that web folks are watching and taking notes.

It's actually loading much faster than earlier today, Katsuey.

Found this blog by chance and was interested in the comments regarding the ad-mechanism on Giant.

We've gone a step further than that for some time with SubLines a neat polite ad solution. Look at http://www.sublines.co.uk to learn more.

I'd appreciate your comments. We have had rave reivews from publishers and agencies alike.

Cheers,

Jon

yes its brilliant and amazing..but wheres the code!? ive looked EVERYWHERE and cant seem to find it..does someone out there have it?