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Does anyone else become infuriated when they visit forbes.com?

6 years ago from , Designer & Developer of stuff for people

Forbes.com have some great articles, and come up at the top of my search results often.

And like a fool, I always click saying to myself, "It's not that bad". Only to be bombarded by advertisements, unnecessary pagination and all in all a horrible reading experience.

I understand that this is an attempt to increase the number of advertisements they can shove down peoples throats. The downside is that I end up leaving. Surely if they took the time to lay the advertisements in a less obtrusive manner people would stay longer, resulting in more impressions?

The page that got me wound up: https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2017/04/03/2017-bmw-530i-the-just-right-german-sports-sedan/#5d462b78410f

24 comments

  • Mike MulveyMike Mulvey, 6 years ago

    I feel like this about more and more of the web each day.

    Page bloat, ads — and sites that disallow adblockers — are getting way out of hand.

    15 points
    • Thomas RawcliffeThomas Rawcliffe, 6 years ago

      I could not agree more. It seems that over the past couple of months sites have amped up their advertising.

      I get it, but it's executed so poorly.

      1 point
      • Cory DymondCory Dymond, 6 years ago

        I get it, but it's executed so poorly.

        Exactly.

        The reason ad blockers exist isn't because I don't want you to serve ads to me. I'm actually pretty cool with ads. I'm not an idiot. I know a business like Forbes can't pay people to write good content if they aren't making ad money. The reason I have an ad blocker is because your ads, like the flash ads of yore, are a fucking flesh eating virus taking over the entire page.

        I can't get it to serve the ad it originally did when I first visited the page, but the actual content of that article was seriously about 30% of the screen area. Even with the slightly less intrusive ads it's loading now, the content is 41% of the available screen area. That is fucking INSANE.

        1 point
    • Pedro PintoPedro Pinto, 6 years ago

      There's a cool Outline article about this topic: https://theoutline.com/post/1165/the-web-looks-like-shit

      1 point
  • Sem SchilderSem Schilder, 6 years ago

    No. I. Won't. c'ya

    7 points
    • Kristjan Gomboc, 6 years ago

      Same here. Still I manage to click on their links but at the millisecond I see this page I close the tab. I really what's the drop-off rate here...

      6 points
  • Ken Em, 6 years ago

    I'm no longer infuriated because I stopped going there. :) I get the idea of ads on the web, I really do. I worked in the news industry for 14 years. What I don't get is why websites and ad networks need to be so hostile toward the user in regards to ads. I wouldn't mind seeing some ads if they weren't so abusive. Until then, I'll continue to block everything.

    5 points
  • Surjith S MSurjith S M, 6 years ago

    I stopped clicking Forbes Articles lately because they have a Welcome page with "Adblock" detection. Never able to read article because of that.

    3 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, 6 years ago

    I did, I don't go there now. Perfect way to lose loyal readers (i'm not loyal but the point stands)

    1 point
  • James Ciclitira, 6 years ago

    Checkout outline - read articles without the clutter

    1 point
  • Kishore SKishore S, 6 years ago

    Can't' agree more. The quotes page, the ads.. wow they are definitely not living up to their brand name!

    1 point
  • Luis La TorreLuis La Torre, 6 years ago

    I guess the real question is: Have you guys found any good and well-designed source of financial news site?

    0 points
  • Tyler Cecchi, 6 years ago

    Infuriated? No, taking 2 seconds to click out of an ad does not get my blood boiling, especially if the content which I'm about to get for free is quality. It's when you have to navigate through an ad to get to shitty content that is bothersome.

    It is pretty disappointing to still see a lack of creative solutions when it comes to ad serving. Advertising is by most accounts interruption, which is totally fine, but I wish the timing of the interruptions was a bit more thought out rather than just hiding content behind an ad before you get even a glimpse of what you're being interrupted for, especially seeing how titles alone can be vague, if not totally misleading.

    0 points
  • Vasil EnchevVasil Enchev, 6 years ago

    It's the worst! It's not about the reader experience it's about opening pages to boost their SEO, it's about showing you as many ads as they can to get money. It's about publishing a lot of shity articles instead of few quality ones. Greed it's what it is. Websites like this don't deserve to be on the web.

    0 points
  • Darrell HanleyDarrell Hanley, 6 years ago

    What really bugs me is that all these print publications are transitioning to be digital first, but none of them really understands what that actually means. Most of them, Forbes notably, are completely reliant on social media traffic and Google to get views. They rely on clickbait titles and SEO to get traffic, but none of them really own a community. Time.com, Forbes, CNN, all interchangeable because none have fostered a community around themselves nor built themselves as the place to consume the news.

    Eventually they're going to get smacked hard by the browsers when they really start cracking down on user hostile advertising patterns, and they're going to be in a lurch. Not to mention that Facebook could change their algorithms tomorrow and suddenly half the traffic would disappear.

    0 points
  • Nathan HueningNathan Huening, 6 years ago

    Yes, but mainly because their business "analysis" is utter garbage.

    0 points
  • Jay WycheJay Wyche, 6 years ago

    Visiting Forbes on the desktop is like visiting pretty much every news site/blog on mobile.

    0 points
  • Gergo Bekes, 6 years ago

    Every. Single. Time.

    0 points
  • Jonas S, 6 years ago

    My first encounter with Forbes was in Die Hard. So I've always thought it was supposed to be some sort of high quality publication but the native advertising articles crap that makes the bulk of the content, combined with their hostile user experience has totally destroyed the brand.

    Die Hard

    0 points
  • Francesco BonomiFrancesco Bonomi, 6 years ago

    When I stumble upon these obtrusive ways to hide content I'll just leave. If possible I'll try and find that content somewhere else.

    What works best for me are instead the polite and discreet banners asking me to allow ads on their domain. Also because probably I know their ads won't be flashy and annoying.

    I guess every website makes a choice based on their tone of voice and what works best for their audience, but I'll always feel morally obligated to let them know the obtrusive manners won't work on me ;)

    0 points
  • Christoph OChristoph O, 6 years ago

    Some things just don't change. Forbes will always have this stupid quote when you visit that's really just a reason to show you an ad, and LinkedIn will forever ask you to sync your contacts and email on every visit to make more irrelevant recommendations (must have declined it 100 times by now). Those things are probably so deeply meshed into those companies that nobody dares to touch them.

    0 points
  • Efren Castillo, 6 years ago

    Yes. I don't like it either.

    0 points