This has become a new pet peeve ... and having a blog means nothing if not the freedom to peeve as one pleases: So what's up with Web sites that present full-page ads as their front door to visitors and then offer the option to "Skip this Welcome Screen" with a mouse click.
Welcome screen? I have no objection to the ad - after all, they help put a roof over my head - but what exactly is the silly euphemism "Welcome Screen" supposed to accomplish besides insulting the visitor's intelligence?
Maybe "Welcome Screen" is considered merely the online equivalent of television's time-honored "a word from our sponsor," but at least the word sponsor acknowledges that we're entering into a commercial conversation, not coffee and cookies at someone's house.
Forbes.com is the offending party I've most recently visited, but I don't mean to pick on Forbes (or today's "Welcome Screen" advertiser, Symantec).
As I sit here ruminating (far too long) about what might possess a site operator to embrace the obviously disingenuous "Welcome Screen" dodge, I'm left to presume that it has something to do with desiring to avoid even the appearance of encouraging visitors to "skip" the important message being provided by their advertisers. If you're skipping the "Welcome Screen" instead then you're somehow not really skipping the ad.
Well, this Web site that you are reading at the moment carries full-page ads and we invite those disinterested in the sales pitch to "Proceed directly to NetworkWorld.com" via the escape click. Accomplishes the same end; more deftly worded.
But "Skip this ad" would work just fine, too. Potential customers are grownups (in most cases); they're not going to skip the ad just because the words "Skip this ad" are there. Would anyone in marketing care to disagree?
I'm done. Now for a word from our sponsor ...
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