Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

In the wee hours this morning, a friend of mine posted a Facebook message expressing irritation with pop-up ads. In the tricky and ever-evolving world of digital advertising, it does seem like we’re bombarded with marketing messages at times, but I have to say I prefer a good, old-fashioned pop-up to the technique I just encountered in an article by ReadWriteWeb.

Now before I starting complaining, I should say that I feel ReadWriteWeb is an excellent resource for tech trends, social media information, and more. I read content from the RRW blogs pretty much daily. I recommend their content to others. I like these guys a whole lot.

All that being said, I’m completely baffled and annoyed by the decision RRW has made to place text-based advertising smack dab in the middle of articles. Please see Exhibit A, from a post on a new Gmail client for Macs:

Really. REALLY?! Someone who works with this fine organization thinks it's a good idea to completely disrupt the flow of informative articles with ill-placed ad content that stands to confuse users because visually it appears to be a part of said article. Boo. Bad form.

I'll take a pop-up over this schlock any day. What about you? Do you think this approach is recommended? Let me know in the comments.