Slow Death of the Internet, Part 342

It's becoming a pain to surf the internet. You might have noticed. If not you soon will.

A typical browse from my iPad can take me through a number of increasingly frustrating steps. I start of with a google search, then I click on one of the top results. A window pops up - 'we have an iPad app for your device (exclamation mark), click my button to install'. Not going to happen, sorry. Click my button, buster.

When I get to the website a number of things can happen. Firstly the website is sure to have adverts, this seems to be the only way to 'monetize' a website these days. They can be glaringly distracting - they currently occupy the borders of some sites which really should know better. The actual website itself seems regulated to a boring window in the centre, while all sorts of flashing graphics draw me to another product that will truly enrich my life.

Or the adverts are personalized for my convenience, which usually means that the same ad pops up on a number of sites I visit. Tacky.

The amazing moving web page is currently my favourite most irritating monetize-driven device on the internet. I go to a top UK 'quality' newspaper website, I scan for the news and - the text jumps down as randomly-sized ads bully their way in at the top of the page. No-one seems to be clever enough to pre-size the ads and their positions, why would they?

Of course I find an interesting story, but click a millisecond too early/late as the text jumps down and I end up on another page, or worse an adsite. Every page on the site has this extra feature. You'd almost begin to think they want us to pay for their content, they're certainly making us suffer.