# Well, the Internet was nice while it lasted. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506 "2010-12-01T02:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/1 "2010-12-01T02:46:35Z")
Story [here.](http://s494.photobucket.com/albums/rr308/DeathB4D_Calf/?action=view¤t=AdBar.jpg) Or to be specific, the link points to a screenshot I uploaded on my Photobucket site. Today, beginning at about 5pm Pacific time, I’m seeing a huge banner ad at the top of my browser screen. It isn’t a toolbar that I can turn off or hide, but it’s in the page of content. It takes up about one sixth of the total real estate of my screen, which sucks especially because it was already hard to read a page of text. I had already moved my task bar over to the right edge to obtain more vertical window size. Many of the ads are animated and I have a very poor DSL connection. At the moment, I’m looking at ads for Google Maps, Hotwire, Cheap Tickets, and Skype. To the right of those, it’s “V” Valet Custom Cabinets & Closets. Mention this ad and receive $500 off. Now I must admit, there is a close button at the upper right of this garbage, which I can click to get rid of it. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/2 "2010-12-01T02:48:14Z")
…But when I load another page, like when I posted the OP, it comes right back again. Every page-load now requires us to do this apparently. Is it just me, or is this just as bad as sandboxed AOL was. Is this but a dream? Somebody pinch me. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/3 "2010-12-01T02:56:08Z")
Silly **Spectre** , the internet won’t go away - it will just get buried in a deluge of singing, dancing, popping-up ads that you spend more time clicking to make them go away than you do reading actual pages. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/4 "2010-12-01T03:02:11Z")
Is there a story, or is it just you right now? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/5 "2010-12-01T03:02:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Silly **Spectre** , the internet won’t go away - it will just get buried in a deluge of singing, dancing, popping-up ads that you spend more time clicking to make them go away than you do reading actual pages. It’ll be a party like it’s 1999 all over again (on teh intarwebz). ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/6 "2010-12-01T03:19:35Z")
Malware? ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/7 "2010-12-01T03:25:33Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Is there a story, or is it just you right now? There is no story here. Either buddy’s machine got spyware’d or his dick ISP is injecting ads. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/8 "2010-12-01T03:28:08Z")
When I – ahem – googled about this, I came up with a few stories or mentions, here and there, about how this was coming down the pike. The ads all seem to be legitimate businesses. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/9 "2010-12-01T03:30:28Z")
Yeah, that’s not really possible. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/10 "2010-12-01T03:31:36Z")
There’s no way this would even be practical. People would in short order create something that blocked the ads, if current adblockers didn’t work already. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/11 "2010-12-01T03:36:38Z")
I really think you have malware. ---
**Author:** ![Pedro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/12 "2010-12-01T04:52:24Z")
I heard the ads go away if you mail this “story” to at least 10 people in your address book. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/13 "2010-12-01T14:54:43Z")
If that doesn’t work, you can try SuperAntiMalwareBlockyThing 2000 free for six hours. It makes your system go faster! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/14 "2010-12-01T17:11:31Z")
With firefox and adblocking I do not get those ads. I just opened up chrome and it doesn’t have ads either.I am not going to touch internet exploder with a 10 foot pole, or a 5’7" finn either. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/15 "2010-12-01T17:18:56Z")
Are you talking about the banner add at the top of the Photobucket site only? Or is this happening everywhere? ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/16 "2010-12-01T17:28:39Z")
I’d be happy not to see “Encinitas Mom Makes $77/Hr Online” at the top of my SDMB screen. Then it states; “Unemployed Mom Makes $6,397/Month Working Online.” How the hell can she make 6000+ a month working yet be unemployed? Although she’s pretty cute, I’m not clicking on it to find out what she does. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/17 "2010-12-01T17:31:20Z")
She poses for stock photos to use in banner ads. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/18 "2010-12-01T17:33:42Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I really think you have malware. I highly doubt Spectre hangs out at the sort of sites where a person could get malware… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/19 "2010-12-01T19:59:32Z")
Sooo … who are we pitting here, exactly? Relatives, virus makers, the IE devs, ad designers, all of the above? ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506/20 "2010-12-01T20:41:49Z")
The best part of this thread is when you read buddy’s other thread about being in IT. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-the-internet-was-nice-while-it-lasted/562506.md?page=2)