Internet users tend to ignore banner ads

[mandy]

An eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group finds Internet users avoid viewing banner ads. Text advertising is read more often than display ads, according to the research.

Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements. This is especially true for bright, flashing ads, and other units that are not relevant to what the user is interested in reading, the researchers found.

"People are not looking at the typical blinding, graphical ads," said Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research Kara Pernice Coyne. "They are not [looking] enough time to absorb a complex ad or branding message."...

Images that appear in the middle of the page, a spot for advertisements, are considered "obstacles" and annoying...

full article: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3616001

[xppman]

And the Nielsen/Norman Group needed to do a study to find that out? :blinkie:

Wow you think a clue would have been all the tools and browser
features that have been out a few years
like pop up AD blockers, spam filters and ADware removing tools.

Images that appear in the middle of the page, a spot for advertisements, are considered "obstacles" and annoying...

Imagine that... you don't say.