December 27, 2001

MSNBC and "Just Being Obnoxious"
   by mike <mike@pfft.net>

The internet has come such a long way since Al Gore "invented it." Indeed, we now have wireless devices connected and with more people joining each day, the Internet is the medium for holiday shopping and online courses through major college and universities. Even some court systems use the 'net to offer online Traffic School for us tech-geek speeders.

However, along with the boom of the internet has come the boom of the pains-in-Mike's-ass: online ads. I can't stand those little pop-up windows in Internet Explorer [or Nutscrape Navigator, if you prefer them] with ads for things I'll never need. And I swear, if I see another ad for that damn X10 mini camera, someone's going to die.

But I suppose this is just another annoyance we'll have to deal with, like those subscription cards in magazines that fall out by the dozen even when you already subscribe to the @#$%@!ing magazine. However, MSNBC.com has taken journalism and capitalism and spliced them - a combination I cannot stand any longer.

Now on MSNBC.com, instead of simply having banner ads at the top, bottom and perhaps side of the news page, it also has pop-up windows with ads galore. Further, they even had a particular Ameritrade ad that really gets me: As I view a news article on msnbc.com's web site, it'll fade out and fade into a full-browser Ameritrade ad. The only way to get out of it is to click "Close" and have it fade out. What in the fsck is that?! PFFT. That's outright obnoxious and annoying. I refuse to go to their web site anymore, and you should do the same. CNN.com, here I come!

You know what else you should do? Drink Kool-Aid while BASE jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge... ...naked. Talk about a rush.

Published: December 27, 2001
Editor: stacy