Once upon a time, an online user had the luxury of clicking play on a particular video hosted on a website and ended up watching just that. Now, such a time seems as fictional as a fairytale, as they have been forced to endure what has now become the annoying presence of video ads.
Whether it is some fast food chain talking up their latest combo deal or a car company highlighting their latest make and model, there is almost always something that demands our attention for even minutes before users actually get to see what they want. Admittedly, there are some that allow the user to advance directly to the desired video after five seconds, but why isn’t that an immediate option?
Evidently, it would appear as though being aware of the effects of video ads has caused advertisers to latch on to the promotional tool without an interest in letting go. “If a picture paints a thousand words then video paints a million and digital advertisers are wising up to how effective this form of online advertising can be,” Desere Orrill, CLO of Ole! Media Group said. Having said that, while we understand that advertising, marketing and all things associated are important, it that doesn’t stop us from being annoyed by the video ads ever so often.
Sadly, it is not only on video-sharing websites where such a phenomenon is experienced. The same goes for the standard websites as well, and sports fans will readily acknowledge that it is almost impossible to watch a series of sport videos on any of the major websites without having to watch at least one video ad in the process.
While video ads may be the more pronounced annoyance at the moment, the fact of the matter is that there is a number of other tech occurrences endured every day that online users aren’t too fond of. Here is a look at a few:
CAPTCHAs
To say that there is a strong dislike for CAPTCHAs among online users would be like saying that Katy Perry has a few Twitter followers – it is a gross understatement (she in fact has the most, with over 60 million). For those who don’t know, CAPTCHA is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turning test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. You know, those jumbled letters and numbers that many websites require you to enter to prove that you aren’t a machine trying to infiltrate their network.
While there may be a justification for utilizing this mechanism, the real annoyance is in the fact that oftentimes the characters that are given are next to impossible to decipher. Whether there is a strikethrough, or the numbers and letters are contorted beyond recognition, what started out as a basic test has now become far too complex. Interestingly, it has been stated that some artificial intelligence technology now has the ability to solve these enigmas close to 100% of the time – so really their relevance is very questionable.
In understanding that online users are close to their breaking point (if it hasn’t been breached already), Google created a system to appease the frustration. With the use of images and a simple check box, all the unwanted emotions we feel when we’re trying to make sense of (what can be best described as) nonsense should soon escape us.
It should be pretty safe to say that anyone who has spent more than a couple seconds on the Internet has had to deal with pop-ups, and they will all acknowledge that they are never happy to see them. Video ads may be the most recent unwanted form of online annoyance, but it still has a far way to go before it can be as bothersome as a pop-up, and the statistics are there to prove just how undesirable these things are. It isn’t aided by the fact that it is usually some individual or entity trying to sell some “get rich quick” scheme or something else that attempts to attract more seconds of attention than it takes to close the window.
Online users have been forced to deal with pop-ups for well over a decade now, but despite their best efforts they just can’t seem to shake them. Yes, there are many pop-up blocking software out there, but we would do anything to not have any at all, versus trying to figure out the best one to install. Maybe it’s about time we just give up on that dream.
Software installs/upgrades with add-ons
Gone are the days when upgrading a software meant just that. With many installations and upgrades, online users are now being greeted by third-party software that also wants to have its own space on the hard drive.
The consensus here – if there was an interest in such software then we would have gone out looking for it. While it might take less than a second to click the checkbox and turn down the add-on, you start thinking about who to talk to in order to get all those seconds back.
Video Ads and other Annoying Tech Occurrences
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