Replies: 4 comments
I have more to say...
I guess these companies think they can blast users with this kind of garbage and survive. Maybe they can, but only in the short run. If you contrasted the simplicity of Yahoo with the simplicity of Google a couple of years ago, they would be about even. Times have changed.
Voila.fr are acting as criminals. Fortunately, users will blast them. User will complain. If they don't, that is excellent too. If they simply stop going, the site will die and the company will die. The usability abuses will result in a corporate death penalty. Excellent! Perhaps it will be a slow death, but it will be a death...
The funny thing about all this is that Google is making money. That seems to indicate that you can treat people with respect and still make money online. Indeed, I would argue that Google makes a lot more money exactly because they treat people with respect and they care about usability.
Posted by John S. Rhodes @ 11/05/2001 11:06 PM EST
If you check the Finance section of Yahoo and look at the stock rates, you have even worse advertisements... as soon as you start moving the mouse, what appears to be a static advertisement increases in size to cover the information you're looking at.
I don't get why these companies advertise like this... do they think that we will go and buy the product out of our frustration for them and say "I'll buy it just shut up?" I don't think so!
Posted by anonymous @ 11/06/2001 08:50 AM EST
They're short-term remedies from flailing companies.
Mr. Showbiz used to be my source of movie reviews, starting back in 1998 (along with WallOfSound for music reviews). Both have closed their doors by now.
Things started to go downhill when Go networks started trying to brand all over them. Then, they started to go with obnoxious Flash advertisements and popups. Then, they changed their page layout and structure which merely increased the number of pages you had to wade through to get to the information you wanted -- the reviews!
These changes always irritated me ... I didn't stop visiting right away, but the frequency of visits slowly withered away as time went on.
The same thing happened with Entertainment Weekly ... I used to use that as well, but the popups got to me ...
Moral: Short-term ad revenue gains may make some money, but it'll cost you users.
Posted by Filipe Fortes @ 11/07/2001 10:59 AM EST
These advertisements were probably targeted towards people who are "new at the internet". Some might find it interesting if they don't know about the company who's doing the advertisment, but otherwise the company is losing a lot of respect.
Personally, I can't believe eBay would stoop down so low to get new auction users. Aren't they making enough money to satisify their needs and wants already?
Posted by Matt Rhodes @ 11/07/2001 04:06 PM EST
