You would have imagined that targeted consumer advertising would be playing a much bigger role in generating revenue in 2008 than some continuing to use some of the more irritating methods still deployed by large companies desperate to get their message across. 

Despite a number of surveys that have shown exactly what web users think of pop-ups and other intrusive advertising techniques, advertisers and publishers persist in using these ads. 

• Site intros - Flash-based intros which kick off when you have arrived an interesting site, consuming more of your precious time
• Overlays – These obscure the articles you are trying to read and ruin the user experience.
• Pop-up’s or Pop-under’s – Thankfully, pop-up blockers deal with the majority of pop-ups, though some sites still manage to sneak them in though.
• In-line text ads – These are the double-underlined text links you find on some sites, which link popular words to external advertisers’ sites.
• Audio in ads – There is nothing wrong with audio in video ads, but the user must be in control. When sound plays automatically it forces you to quickly reach for the volume switch / hunt for the ad on the page that is playing the audio.

Put simply, if web users are annoyed by ads when they visit a website, they will transfer that annoyance onto the site that hosts them, and also the brand which is using them to advertise. 

Companies should move forward and look at the range of advertising methods that are currently finding traction with their consumers.