Over the winter break, my brother Ben and I did a lot of Internet surfing together. We would read the news, look at online comics, or peruse our favorite gaming sites. At some point, I guess my brother must have gotten fed up with spending as much time closing pop-up windows as he did browsing, because he called me into the computer room one day to announce his discovery. "Hey Jon," he said, "check this out." He had done some searching and had downloaded and installed a pop-up killer/banner remover, (For those of you interested, it's called AdsGone. The latest version of Netscape also includes an anti-pop-up feature). Ben and I spent the next 10 minutes scouring the Internet for web pages to test our new program on. We began by visiting the sites most notorious for bombarding the user with pop-up ads and new windows: Porn and warez (pirated software) pages. Each time a would-be pop-up was put down our computer elicited an all-too-satisfying "BZZZT." "Another one bites the dust" we'd say. Banners were replaced with non-offending empty white rectangles.During those 10 minutes, we tasted succulent revenge for all those years of torment. Why hadn't we downloaded this program sooner? Yet, while listening to the almost hypnotic rhythm of dying ads, it never occurred to me that my actions might be part of a much larger phenomenon. Advertisers have become more aggressive and intrusive in our browsing experience. Ads no longer remain idle on the sides of our window, but force us to shut each down one by one. In response, the viewers have created programs to defend against this new advertising strategy. Though it seemed like a triumph at first, it later dawned on me that we may be shooting ourselves in the foot. I decided to ask my brother what he thought. "Ben, do you think blocking advertisements is a bad thing? I mean, after all, those companies paid those web pages to show their ads and if the web pages don't make any money from the ads how are they going to continue providing us with free content?" His answer? "Nope."

Not satisfied with his response, I decided to conduct an informal survey. The results of my little poll were unanimous: pop-ups must die. It's no surprise that most of us don't feel too guilty about blocking them, they practically constitute harassment: Close one, and it is instantly replaced by two more, much like the heads of the mythical hydra. Some newer forms of pop-ups even have the audacity to slowly march across our screen, obscuring our view.

Banners though, are a bit different from pop-ups. They merely take up space on screen, waiting patiently in case your eyes should wander. All they can do is pathetically hope you'll notice them, much like a wallflower at a dance. Pretentious ones may try to grab your attention with flashing colors, but otherwise, they don't disrupt your browsing experience the way pop-ups do. You'll either ignore a banner entirely, or click on it if you see something interesting. Only because we can disregard them are we more willing to tolerate them than pop-ups.

In some respects, pop-ups and banners can be compared to television and print. Like television commercials, pop-ups and banners operate under the assumption that the viewer will see the ads presented to them. In exchange content is provided free of charge. Nowhere, however, is it required that you carefully inspect each advertisement. You can close pop-ups quickly without ever seeing them, similar to the way you can go for a snack or change the channel during a commercial break. Banners are more like advertisements in a newspaper -- they're omnipresent, but you never have to read one if you don't want to.

The difference between advertising on television, and on the Internet is that television advertisers have better learned how to reach their audience. On television there are some ads we actually want to see. Every once in a while we'll see one that is so cool we'll even tell our friends about it. Need proof? Just look at the Super Bowl, which some people watch only for the commercials. The problem is that Internet advertisers haven't quite figured out how to use the new medium to their advantage. They resort to cheap tricks and brute force. But a few companies have caught on and realized that the best way to get web-surfers to pay attention to their advertisements is not to annoy them but instead give them something they'll come to see voluntarily. BMW, for example, has released a series of short, flashy films; (www.bmwfilms.com), directed and produced by big names such as John Woo and Ridley Scott. Even though they don't have to, people go out of their way to download and watch these glorified commercials.

If advertisers continue down the path they're currently on, they'll be fighting a battle they're going to lose. You can't stop progress, as much as advertisers would like to believe they can maintain their current practices. They'll eventually have to adapt to the changing market, especially now that consumers are fighting back. My brother was right, blocking advertisements won't harm the Internet, it will force it to evolve. In the end, loyal customers aren't won by incessant pestering, but by clever marketing. From now on advertisers will have to work smarter if they want our money.

-- Jonathan Melenson '04 is a UNet consultant. Feel free to send questions, comment, and marriage proposals to him at techcolumn@brandeis.edu. The Justice is not to be held responsible for the consequences of following the advice printed in this column.