You know what they do to get your attention. One-day-only offers. The blinking. The spinning. The annoying “Click here and you’re a winner!” Advertisers on the internet will do anything to get your attention, even if it is negative attention. Even though not all companies that advertise on the internet produce ads that are maddening, they still wish to be effective. Luckily for Internet users, there is hope. There are standards by which companies must comply when advertising on the internet. The Interactive Advertising Bureau devises these standards. Two of the biggest concerns for internet users are pop-up advertising and spam e-mails. So read more on what ads can and cannot do to get your attention.

Advertising Pop-Up Guidelines

Guidelines for pop-ups were created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in fall 2004. In fact, there is an entire task force focused on pop-up advertising. Pop-ups are defined by the organization as an advertising tool that uses a “web-browser initiated” extra window that places an advertising “impression” on top of or under the window browser on which the user is currently. The organization explains that users should not have to deal with more than one pop-up ad per visit to a website. Also, pop-ups must be labeled and close box icons are mandatory. There are also regulations created for the purpose of controlling the size of pop-ups.

Advertising E-mail Guidelines

There is also a committee focused on the abuse of e-mail as an advertising tool. There are reports that a new “Do-Not-Email” registry is in the works. There is also an Email Marketing Pledge that advertisers are supposed to abide by. The pledge reads that unsolicited commercial e-mail must not be sent. There must be an existing “business relationship” or informed prior consent before e-mail is to be sent. Also, those who receive email must be provided the opportunity to request to be taken off of the list. Subject lines are to be forward, as opposed to misleading. Finally, “scraping or harvesting” of e-mails is not to be done.

It is good to see that there are organizations out there working on behalf of the unwary internet traveler.