So! Now that popup ads are pretty much under control on the web (with some exceptions here and there), it appears that sites are moving on to an even more frustrating way to show ads: interstitials.
Now, they’re nothing new but I’ve noticed them on two sites I frequent lately. The first is the Chicago Tribune, which I read daily. Instead of being taken directly to the home page I have to manually choose to “Skip This Ad”. Thankfully, I don’t see the ad due to Firefox’s swell FlashBlock extension, but still. It’s annoying.
A little more surprising was one I encountered at American Express. I wanted to check my bill, and instead I got a one-page application for a card! Gah. That’s almost worse than the ad. I wondered if I’d gone to the wrong URL, but I didn’t. They tricked me.
How long until there’s some mechanism to get around these annoyances? Not soon enough.
Posted in Technology