[WEB4LIB] Re: Free Britannica Going Away

[Daniel Messer]

I fully agree with you. I really don't mind the ads all that much, but the 
reason I don't mind them is I don't hardly even see them. I must look at 
around 50 banner ads per day. However, I don't really *look* at them. I 
notice their existence and proceed with whatever it was I was doing. Since I 
don't remember what the ad was for, and I don't remember what product or what 
brand the ad was pushing, the ad failed with me. The point is that I flip 
past the online ad and give it just as little thought as I would an ad in a 
magazine.

Advertisers were trying to use a method called "branding" with these ads. By 
this you'll see a product and associate it with a brand name. For instance, 
Band-aids, Frisbee, and Tums are all successful branding ventures. But with 
so many ads on the net, and no one looking at them or paying attention in 
anyway, the ads are failing, just as quickly as the companies. If it took me 
clicking on an ad every now and then just to keep a good service free, I'd do 
it too.

Dan
Mike Madin <madin at academicinfo.net> said:

> There seems to be an odd irony with online advertising: When you pay for a
> print subscription advertising is assumed but with free online content ads
> are anathema. For example, when you subscribe to the print version of
> American Libraries (or any other magazine or newspaper) advertising isn't
> giving a second thought but when you access the *free* online version ads
> become offensive.
> 
> Even though I'm no fan of corporate America, I'd rather live with online
> advertising than see the demise of all independent search engines,
> directories and portals.


The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer
Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
509-452-8541 ext 712
102 N 3rd St  Yakima, WA  98901
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                                         -Hunter S. Thompson