Part of the problem is that there appears to be no 'web usability' department to stand up to the 'advertising' or 'design' departments on large publisher websites.

And part of the problem is that people implement 'Google-recommended' practices without questioning them.

So you end up on, for example, the UK's most successful newspaper website with a responsive Adsense implementation floating down covering the top third of the screen and a house ad, also floating, covering a fifth of the screen on the bottom right. And some pages don't completely load in Firefox so you can't even read an article to the end even if you wanted to...

Adsense is still recommending that I implement ad practices which would wreck the usability of my popular sites because my usability is a matter of no importance to them.

Newspaper sites are the best examples of how not to do it!

I comprehend why they do it however because they do what they do, with ad stuff coming from all sorts of suppliers, I simply do not go to their sites.

They are bad enough on desktop however on mobile they are, quite simply, pointless.

I use Firefox with its built-in ad-blocker, problem solved ... mostly.

When I'm reading an article and up (or over) pops an ad for XYZXYX Corporation, I have several options to consider:

1. I just forget about reading the article and click away

2. I look for the article elsewhere, sorry publisher.

3. I make a point of remembering XYZZYX and try not to do any business with them

4. I wonder if it would do any good to send a "complaint" email to XYZZYX

5. I wonder if it would do any good to send a "complaint" email to the publisher

6. I wonder if I should click the ad and wait a while for it to cost the advertiser

7. I wonder if I should click the ad quickly and leave hoping it creates a "clawback" frustration at the end of the month for the publisher

Decisions, decisions. It's usually No 1.


FarmBoy

Video ads, fake products ads, and those ugly yellow link ads.

And religious ads.