MSN Messenger is running an ad I cannot stand–shown at right. It’s from some ring tone company that chimes in with a “bing bing bing bing” sound whenever the pen crosses over even one pixel of the ad. I don’t know what they’re thinking, I’d never buy anything from such an annoying company. In fact, the ad is so annoying that I’ll stop using MSN Messenger if it sticks around. I understand the same ad’s been on Hotmail’s page too so I’ll stop using Hotmail also. Period.
This the problem: I’m working on my Tablet, Skyping with a coworker and then this sound rudely interrupts. Not only can I hear it, but the person on the other end can too. (I wasn’t using a headset.) It’s terrible. Grrr.
I don’t understand how MSN ever allowed this ad to run. What a terrible mistake.
An aside: This illustrates a growing issue with computing devices, such as Tablet PCs, that are being used more and more as mainstream communication devices–not just by one person sitting in a hutch pounding on keys. I use my Tablet around other people. It has to be polite. I need volume control so the Windows startup/shutdown music doesn’t take over. I need Skype and all the other VoIP apps to be able to suppress or ignore audio from my own system, so the people on the other end aren’t annoyed by dings and bings on my machine.
It’s an awareness issue that companies need to address.
I sent a link to this blog entry to the ads team and they are working on fixing it.
Very cool if they can. And thanks for passing along the link.
I don’t mind ads that ask me to activate them, but noisy ones are annoying.
But as I mentioned in the post, issues like this are going to come up more and more as people use their computers more often for more types of communication.
Thanks again!
Even setting the sounds aside, that advertisement has a lot of animation. That’s really distracting when trying to work. What that ad came up a few days ago, I dragged the Messenger window downward so the ad bar is off-screen and it’s still sitting that way now.
An aside – is there a “professional” version of Messenger without all the game links, etc?
That advert is on AIM too..
http://www.mastaline.com/?pagina=fun/msnstuff/info&dlnow=45
this removes all adverts and annoyances
Problem solved. Next.
http://www.trillian.cc/
Tom, yep, that’s the way I look at it too. So far I’ve been able to get by using Skype’s chat feature. When I need ink or receive a message from someone outside my normal chat network I drop back to MSN Messenger. During these times I close out main Messenger window to try to prevent that ad from appearing. I still need to come up with a workaround for Hotmail. The ad appears there too.