This WGSS will be really, really short. I promise.
I will ask you, dear readers, to point your browser to an article page in Reporter.gr (say, this one), take a deep breath and count how many animated banners and paraphernalia you can find littered across the page.
I count:
- One
468x60banner on top, accompanied by two120x60small banners on its right. That makes three. - One big,
728x90banner just above the content. - Three
120x300banners in its right sidebar. Not to mention the Google Ads just below them. But Google ads visual clutter is irrelevant compared to this lengthy animated behemoth. - The obligatory
300x250inline banner in the article text. - Another
120x300banner on its left sidebar, accompanied by a small120x60just below it.
So that makes:
3 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 = 10
That’s ten, my dear readers. Friggin’ ten animated banners on the same content page. Not to mention 3 revolving “New!” .gifs right there on the menu and the animated logo. Jesus web designer Christ on the advertising cross.
It’s a wonder my 2.5 years old Macbook hasn’t exploded yet with this page open in Firefox. Clearly, this is in-content advertising gone terribly wrong.
An example to steer the hell away from.
7 comments on this post
stelios #1
18.Jun.09
I have a strong suspicion that your blog posts don’t show up in my rss reader..
Nick Andrik #2
18.Jun.09
I see one on top (which is the company’s logo and it is “mildly” animated) and 3 small spinning on the left for the “new” labels.
For once more, I am happy with my ad block plus plugin. I don’t even dare to try the page without it.
stelios #3
18.Jun.09
correction: it came up after a couple of hours.
Svelon #4
18.Jun.09
Is there any useful content in there somewhere?
alexandros #5
18.Jun.09
“Jesus web designer Christ on the advertising cross.”.. best rant-quote of the day
stathis #6
18.Jun.09
Well, Greek sites suck. Greek designers stuck at Web 1.0 suck too, as do post-Web 2.0 ones. Why do they not know how to design? BECAUSE THEY’RE FRIGGIN’ GREEKS.
Well, I am too, but I don’t suck so much – I think.
Let’s go into the Greek average net-surfer psychology. They see anything filled with blinking stuff as cool, and think that every site that has seventy nine point two banners is successful.
In the site you’re mentioning I especially like the G-ads mixed with the others, and the fact that the total height of the ads is nearly two times the height of the content.
God, they suck.
Yannis #7
18.Jun.09
OK, I do this for a living. Not design mind you, but talk to the clients that pay for the sites. And they suck, and that’s why their sites suck, in fact they always choose the least imaginative designs. And designers subconsciously know this and offer a proposal that sucks (just to be safe). And yes they want banner space to make money to pay for the sucky site design. In fact its a self sustaining bad design thingimajibbie… ouf..