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?

Categories: social-media  
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