Ads

ethics
By blocking Web ads, am I stealing?
Most of the free content online is supported by advertising. But most advertising is designed to interrupt the content. Even Google's supposedly helpful text ads are, in the end, a distraction; otherwise people would just search for ads instead of real results. Most ads are worse, a moving distraction while I'm trying to read text. So since the dancing cowboy will never make me buy , is it wrong if I just block them? More »

1:18 PM on Mon Sep 17 2007
By Nick Douglas
828 views, 9 comments

Latest by beverlyhills90210: Let me think... The quid-pro-quo of the internet is that free sites are ad supported, and therefore I should more »
googlebait
Real-world ads that know if you looked at them
NICK DOUGLAS — A huge advantage of online ads is knowing just how many people saw (or at least loaded) an ad. No more, if Xuuk Inc. (voted "Most likely to become an H.P. Lovecraft monster") succeeds with the eyebox2, its new thousand-dollar camera that counts viewers from up to 35 feet away. The camera, which collects no data about viewers, could be used on racks of products too. If Google doesn't buy Xuuk or a competitor by January (I'm pretty sure Wired News is wrong about Google already buying the device), I'll take everyone to lunch.

7:05 PM on Thu May 10 2007
By Nick Douglas
744 views, Comment
microsoft
Windows Mobile, sold by that annoying cell phone guy
NICK DOUGLAS — Remember how the Daily Show's John Hodgman did such an adorable performance in Apple's "Get a Mac" ads that it made the PC seem cuddlier than the smug Mac? Then remember how Microsoft hired the equally charming Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin to pimp Windows Vista on the delightful site, Clearification? Now imagine how Microsoft might handle such blessing. Yes, by screwing them up. Know the annoying prick in every coffeeshop line and office hallway, bragging about his $500 phone that runs his "work stuff"? He's the new spokesperson for Windows Mobile. Sure, some of his lines in the videos are charming, but on this promo page, he comes off a little too much like the suits I avoid at tech conferences.

9:31 PM on Wed Mar 28 2007
By Nick Douglas
859 views, 3 comments

Latest by Imakenothing: Ok mostly grating, but goddam if those out takes werent funny.... "Um I think we have enough snakes now..." more »
google
Watch Google go Hollywood as they turn into an ad company
The culture split between Yahoo and Google is Hollywood versus the nerds, according to most journalists (take, for example, a CNET compare-and-contrast article from 2005). Yahoo is the one that brought in TV and film execs like CEO Terry Semel and "went Hollywood," a move often blamed for the company's financial and cultural woes. But so has Google, as a corporation and as an executive team. More »

6:10 AM on Thu Oct 12 2006
By Nick Douglas
122 views, 2 comments

Latest by George: Larry might've "gone Hollywood," but Sergey is still dating that ugly, manly-looking woman. He's keepin' it real and keepin' it more »
ads
Famous tech taglines remixed
"Where do you want to go today?" "Think Different." "No wonder it's number one." The tech world's vague slogans may seem interchangeable, but if they're applied to the wrong product — even within the same company — they could prove disastrous. More »

2:06 PM on Wed Oct 4 2006
By Nick Douglas
1,438 views, Comment
ads
Bad ads: A bad case of robot face
We guess McAfee is trying to show the horror of exposed identity. Still — is this, or is this not, the most grotesque ad for a virus scanner you've ever seen? It's practically a Dadaist artwork. More »

9:22 AM on Tue Sep 19 2006
By Nick Douglas
79 views, Comment

apple
Scoop: Apple is about to break big into ad sales
It didn't take long for a real deal to come out of Google CEO Eric Schmidt joining the board of Apple. Forget the rumor that Apple will support Google Video in its new iTV product or other such trifles — Apple will soon run loads of Google ads on its online properties, according to an outside source. More »

6:20 AM on Mon Sep 18 2006
By Nick Douglas
168 views, 1 comment

Latest by benbarren: makes sense given all the bus dev deal which google is actually doing quite effectively. big deals. big bubbles. no more »
You're the devil in disguise Is it just me (and the finder) amused by this shot from Microsoft's developer network? Microsoft Devil Woman w/ horns + whip (from Visual Source Safe) [Reddit] MORE »

2 comments
techcrunch
Pop goes the weasel: When Web 2.0 bombs, these blogs could die
When the little dot-coms blow up, says marketing/PR blogger Steve Rubel, the sites funded by their advertising will go under too. Rubel names social news site Digg as one potential victim. How does it stack up against other Web-2.0-supported sites? Above the fold, we analyze Digg and tech blog GigaOM. Below, GigaOM competitor TechCrunch sets off a red alert. More »

4:29 PM on Thu Aug 24 2006
By Nick Douglas
182 views, 1 comment

Latest by Jackson West: Actually, houses aren't so safe anymore, thanks to the real estate bubble finally popping. Granted, you can blame the more »
ads
Microsoft learns how to be kind of a dick
An unknown advertiser is running a viral at Notfornoobs.com, using a TV that flashes the logos for Razer computer peripherals and Microsoft. (We assume that anything with an unauthorized MS logo would be shut down before you can say "crack legal team," so the company's partly guilty for this ad.) More »

9:23 AM on Fri Aug 18 2006
By Nick Douglas
241 views, Comment

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