I just closed my browser on Wired (wired.com). There was an interesting item I started to read but then something splotched itself on the screen and monstrous words started raining down from the upper part of the window in some pinhead's idea of an interesting and innovative way to communicate the benefits of whatever shit they were hawking. I closed the browser for the same reason I stopped watching TV, for the same reason I am drifting further and further from the Web, watching my disinterest grow.

It's not that I object to someone trying to sell something. It's that they are so indifferent or, worse, disrespectful of the people they would sell to. It's how they honestly believe there is nothing wrong with being rude and interrupting or intruding on someone to sell crap. I closed the browser because, like TV, the value of the page (like the value of the TV programs) was not sufficient for me to tolerate being abused.

And yes, this is how I think of Web advertising: abuse.