Commentary

Things I Hate About the Net

I was with a group of non-advertising related people this weekend and thought about this. As much as there is to love, there's a lot to hate about the Net. So here goes (in random order):

Email scams. This is straight out of the "duh" factor dear readers. No bones about it, spam sucks. The fact that e-mail marketing has become so challenged is a pain. Whether it's acquisition or retention, we need this stuff. At least e-mail clients have spam-filtering software now. Somehow this stuff keeps creeping in. This weekend I got an "FBI" e-mail. Hey, if the FBI wanted me, I don't think they'd be sending me an e-mail.

Most pop-ups and pop-unders. The SPINboard will most likely be buzzing about this one. I think this is the most widely misused form of advertising online. If a pop-up is relevant to the content on the page or my demographics/psychographics, I might not hate it. For instance, if I was on a travel site trying to figure out how to get out of this cold snowy weather... and a pop-up launched with a low fare from Boston to San Juan, I just might click. Whether I clicked or not, I wouldn't be annoyed because the ad was relevant to me and tied in my location with my need content-wise.

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Lack of integration. This is between ads online and offline, search, and Web sites. If you click on an ad that is teasing about a particular product, you want to have the linking URL explain more. In so many cases, links go to a home page or jump page with too much information and/or requires me to take instant action. Or how many times have you seen something on TV and tried to search for it online. How come these people aren't synching up their marketing and advertising efforts with paid placement search?

Broken or dead links. I was doing some research for an article the other day. When I typed in several keywords and keyword phrases, I found many links to relevant sites. Once I started going through them, many of the links had changed or the links were dead. Ugh. Why?

Spyware. This is debated a lot these days. Many confuse it with adware. I hate the tricks companies do to mainstream consumers. I hate running my anti-virus software constantly. I'm always paranoid about spyware and I feel like it's getting worse.

Registering for sites. I know, I know, many will cringe when they see this too. But come on, don't you hate registering... deep down? Well consider this for a moment, when I was doing research the other day (as I mentioned earlier) I clicked on a couple of links. Once I got there, I had to register to read the article. They lost me; I clicked off. I understand that we shouldn't necessarily get something for nothing. As a marketer, I want to know all I can about my Web traffic. As a consumer, I hate being forced to register. I'd register if the timing was convenient and the offer was good. Minor information about me in exchange for great content seems fair; just think about how to ask me.

Misused audio. Okay I can't even get into how this one revved me up. Have you ever gone to someone's site that launches audio straight away? Why? Does this add value? Why not ask if the user wants to hear the audio? Or how about applications that launch audio? I was on a conference call and a colleague IMed me. They had audio linked into their screen name/icon. Oh of course my audio was jacked up as I was listening to music prior to the call. That looked professional (not).

Things that take too many clicks. I'm often online shopping for essentials, presents, office supplies, and the like. When I search for a particular product at a particular price, I want to be able to quickly and safely go through a check-out so I can buy my item and have it shipped right away. I don't want to go through page after page entering in information. I also want the ability for the site to capture my information so I can come back and shop with one-click.

So come on readers, what do you hate about the Net? I'm sure I've missed a lot here, but I have a word count to adhere to. Post 'em to the SPIN board so we can rant, rave, and have a little laugh.

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