You may close this ad in 4 seconds – Advertising on the Internet – Out of Hand

Today I was taking a look at a friend’s twitter pic and it went to a popular pic hosting site (which I’ll refrain from mentioning)… while I was waiting for the image to load (enlarge) a video with sound started playing in the lower left hand corner… with the caption “You may close this ad in 4 seconds”.

My response was “I can close this ad now” and clicked the X in the top right corner of the address tab I was on.  WOW?  Really? You are going to auto play video with sound and tell me I can close it in 4 seconds?  How nice.  Clearly people have stopped caring that I might be at work, or there could be a baby sleeping in the room, or… a number of other circumstances that would make it uncomfortable or inappropriate for something to just start playing without my permission.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor when you see these types of ads… CLOSE the browser IMMEDIATELY and get the information you are looking elsewhere (or go without it if need be).  If their Bounce Rate (when someone stays for about a second and leaves) goes up dramatically they will re-think that intrusive ad strategy.   It will make the Internet a better place for everyone.