Two From the Heart
This is an open letter to online advertisers, heartfelt.
Dear Online Advertiser,
Generally speaking, I don't mind you. Often, you are targeting my interests and likes, though sometimes, because I do research online for clients, you get it very, very wrong. Just because I research Classic Cars does not mean I'm interested for their own sake. It's an honest mistake.
But why, oh why, are you going back to your practices of a decade ago and interfering with my online experience? Why are you sending me popups that chase me down the page and won't let me read - and worse, hiding the "close" button on a transparent background and in tiny type (or worse, making it an X that disappears into the background) so I'll have a hard time finding a way to get rid of the thing?
Do you honestly think this makes me feel friendly toward your product? Or is it just clicks - accidental or otherwise - that you're after? Mr. or Ms. Advertiser, if your marketing company tells you this is a good strategy and then touts the number of clicks they'll get you - beware. Nobody is clicking because they're interested. They're clicking because they make a mistake, or they're trying to shut the ad down.
And yes, I have noticed that these types of ads proliferate on sites where the suspected audience is older; the assumption is that these users will be less savvy and therefore more prone to click on the ad rather than hunt for the close option. But be warned: no matter what the age of the user, nobody wants to have their content covered up with - particularly - an irrelevant ad.
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I was going to write in some depth about the Heartbleed Worm that's getting so much attention. Seems it has been silently, and with no trace, running on many network servers, including those supporting Yahoo and worse for me, Netflix and Amazon. Apache servers, Cisco servers - some of the big names in network secure servers - have been infected.
According to some experts the real "fix" is to simply replace the server with the necessary software patch in place. However, some organizations, like the aforementioned Yahoo, Netflix and Amazon, have closed the "hole" that allowed hackers invisible access to their servers, potentially grabbing passwords and other information while they were visiting.
But the real thing is: there isn't much that you can do about it. You can change your passwords if it makes you feel better - but the real work is on the server side, where the worm has to be found and isolated and the access to the server patched up. As noted, there is no indicator that a server has been compromised, so whatever damage is done, is done, and the owners of the servers won't even be able to say for certain that they've been hacked.
Dear Online Advertiser,
Generally speaking, I don't mind you. Often, you are targeting my interests and likes, though sometimes, because I do research online for clients, you get it very, very wrong. Just because I research Classic Cars does not mean I'm interested for their own sake. It's an honest mistake.
But why, oh why, are you going back to your practices of a decade ago and interfering with my online experience? Why are you sending me popups that chase me down the page and won't let me read - and worse, hiding the "close" button on a transparent background and in tiny type (or worse, making it an X that disappears into the background) so I'll have a hard time finding a way to get rid of the thing?
Do you honestly think this makes me feel friendly toward your product? Or is it just clicks - accidental or otherwise - that you're after? Mr. or Ms. Advertiser, if your marketing company tells you this is a good strategy and then touts the number of clicks they'll get you - beware. Nobody is clicking because they're interested. They're clicking because they make a mistake, or they're trying to shut the ad down.
And yes, I have noticed that these types of ads proliferate on sites where the suspected audience is older; the assumption is that these users will be less savvy and therefore more prone to click on the ad rather than hunt for the close option. But be warned: no matter what the age of the user, nobody wants to have their content covered up with - particularly - an irrelevant ad.
----------------------
I was going to write in some depth about the Heartbleed Worm that's getting so much attention. Seems it has been silently, and with no trace, running on many network servers, including those supporting Yahoo and worse for me, Netflix and Amazon. Apache servers, Cisco servers - some of the big names in network secure servers - have been infected.
According to some experts the real "fix" is to simply replace the server with the necessary software patch in place. However, some organizations, like the aforementioned Yahoo, Netflix and Amazon, have closed the "hole" that allowed hackers invisible access to their servers, potentially grabbing passwords and other information while they were visiting.
But the real thing is: there isn't much that you can do about it. You can change your passwords if it makes you feel better - but the real work is on the server side, where the worm has to be found and isolated and the access to the server patched up. As noted, there is no indicator that a server has been compromised, so whatever damage is done, is done, and the owners of the servers won't even be able to say for certain that they've been hacked.
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