Regardless, THIS is excessive. Short version: new 30-second video ads are being tested on 15 sites over the next five weeks. They are the result of a collaboration between online ad developers, Unicast, and software giant, Microsoft. Yep, a full-length commercial, full-screen. They are claiming that if this works, it could cut down on the number of ads, over all...but meanwhile, they are adding commercials to your internet.
Now, the way I figure it, this is the 'Net. The same information you want is available 10 different places, generally. So, if you hit some site using these commercials, you probably aren't going back. Instant bad review. So I don't see them doing well. Add to that the fact that the pop-up and ad blockers will probably find a way to stop this from happening, as well, and it no longer becomes useful.
Here's what REALLY bothers me: this will be a "2MB, 30 second, broadcast quality video, regardless of connection speed...based on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series and uses Unicast proprietary pre-cached technology." This implies that, while you are surfing, it's downloading the ad to your machine, so that, come time for it to pop up, it's already on your machine. Well, there's no way I'm allowing something I'm not affiliated with to be downloading files to my machine, especially a commercial. It'll be time to fiddle with the firewall settings, I do believe...that and disable Windows Media Player.
