Digg Ads Open Without Clicking

I am not a huge fan of Digg and now I have one more reason to not bother going to the website today. I stopped over at Digg because I remembered seeing a link to a post that I wanted to visit again. All was going fine until I moved my mouse over the ad on the page and all of a sudden my browser opened up a new tab. I thought it was a little odd, I did not hear or notice a click, but I thought maybe I accidentally clicked the ad. So I moved my mouse over and off the ad again, and once again my browser opened the link in a new tab.

I know that ad revenues are in decline on the Internet and that publishers are having a tough time making money by placing advertising on website, but is this not a new low for both Digg and TravelZoo? Do you think I will want to spend any time on either of your websites when you do this to me?

Here is a quick screencast I took of the ad opening. I don’t know if you can see the mouse very well, but I move the mouse over and out of most of the ad and nothing happens. If I roll my mouse over the call to action on the ad and off the ad opens the ad URL all without me clicking on the ad. Perhaps I should be thankful, you saved me all that energy I would have wasted clicking on the ad if I was actually interested.

Just another reason not to visit Digg anymore. What do you think is this the future of advertising? Would you want ads like that on your website?