Popups / Ads - Deception
Lying, fibbing and deception have always been a staple of advertisers.
While some ads may not strike you as blatantly deceptive, very few ads are as
objective or as honest as they really oughtta be. Subtly inaccurate or
misleading ad copy is everywhere, from the large-print FREE! followed by the
almost invisible "*" and fine print...or that Big Mac you buy that never seems
to look as big or as tasty as the one they show on TV. The Internet is much less
regulated than other media such as TV and radio; advertisers can often be
misleading and dishonest without as much worry about getting busted for it.
You see an ad. The ad may have nothing to do with the
product/service being sold...e.g. you may see a banner "Click here for nekkid
pictures of Monica Lewinsky giving Bill Clinton head!" that takes you to some
used-car dealership or even worse.
Bait-and-switch is a common
move on Web ads. You see an ad, click it (damn you) and find something either
more expensive than what was advertised or completely unrelated. I've seen the
bait-and-switch at places such as Submit-It, which offer in an ad to
submit your site to 400 search indexes or something absolutely
FREE...when you click through, however, they inform you that the 'free' deal
was discontinued months ago but they'd be happy to submit your site for the low,
low price of only $24.95....Same will go for other services, Web hosting, etc...
Of course in the case of "free" webspace you are often charged
for your account in the form of ugly banners or pop-up exploits (mentioned
above) that advertise on top of your content. You get a couple megs to put up
your website, pictures of your best friend's dog, etc., and they get a free
billboard, free content, free license to use, abuse, modify, pimp and
exploit this content in any way they please, exclusive commercial rights (e.g.
if your site attracts millions of visitors to their site and makes them a
billion dollars, their only compensation to you is a thank-you letter, if even
that), free promotion (somebody has to advertise and promote all that free
content you gave them so people will visit it and make them money, and guess
what, that somebody is YOU)...Not such a great deal? It's an extremely
great deal. For them.
Something to watch for on seedy
sites, everybody wants their name in lights and will do just about anything to
get on some of those coveted "Top 50"-type lists. Watch for disguised "vote for
me" links that profess to be something else:
Enter
SiteRun your mouse over the above link and see what it leads
to...that doesn't look like a site entrance to me! By clicking on a link like
that you are actually voting for the site as a top 50 site! See the "Tracking"
section below for more on CGI-based nasties...
On the "free"
domain name.
Recently some companies have begun to offer free
domain names. In this day and age everybody could use their own domain. (I'm
still waiting to snag webb.net for myself...) Free Domain Name, they
croon, Free Domain Name. Once they fool you into clicking through with that Free
Domain Name crap, that's when you find out that their definition of "free" means
they don't charge you extra money above and beyond what InterNIC charges you for
the domain name. In other words, if you buy their product (kicker #2, they
invariably make you buy something in exchange for their reselling you a
full-price domain name) they won't bill you an extra service charge to send the
request to InterNIC on your behalf.
That counts as free, you say?
No it's not free. That's like saying if you buy a $12,000 car, and
you don't have to pay extra for title and registration, you're getting a free
car. If you have to pay for something, it's not free. Especially if you're still
paying full price!
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