Annoying Ads - Do You Sign In or Leave the Website? ^Featured

Few things drive me as crazy as insistent popups.  Clearly some online marketing / web design companies are selling these as the best way to capture information on your audience, for both tracking and later marketing purposes. But lets not kid, it's the Internet and if your website annoys me I can find what I'm looking for somewhere else.

Take this popup for an example on a local realty website.  It's absolutely maddening.

I was attempting to look at a home they have listed for sale when BAM this ad pops up. I glance around for an "X" when none is to be found I hit "ESC" but to no avail, I'm stuck with this irritating popup on my screen.  I have two choices, sign in and give these people my personal information either directly or through one of my social media accounts, or close out of their website and go find the information somewhere else. And while I'm at it, make a mental note to never look for things on their website (and by extension never use their services) again.  Guess which one I chose...

The very idea that you should demand a potential customer's information to allow them to view information on your website is absurd and while many people have become comfortable with just clicking the "f" to login via Facebook quite a few are far more savvy and not interested in this kind of forced marketing.

At the very least a smart online marketer is going to provide people a choice; that little "X" that allows people to decide if they want your advertising and in the end if they don't you haven't offended anyone. Because let's be real, had you not forced me to find the information on your listing elsewhere I wouldn't be writing this article right now...