Web Creepy Crawlers

Posted Sun, 10/16/11

The most annoying aspect of working on the internet is the ugly presence of web crawlers. I'm not sure how they work (or if "web crawlers" is the correct terminology), but they remain irritating nonetheless.

In a blog entry posted last week, I wrote about gothic goodies to be had at Gael Song. I also listed my preferences, along with images. Not even a day later, one particular image kept rearing it's head wherever I went on the web. The lovely velvet duster sold by Gael Song for $118 appeared in ad space every time I logged into my various pages at Facebook, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. One or two occurrences of the same display might be a coincidence, but not consistently when entering password-protected areas. It gave me the creeps, frankly. The "sales ruse" firmly guarantees I won't be purchasing the velvet duster any time soon.

What sort of web crawler digs into personal computer information or links to blog posts in order to sense when the same person is doing a bit of non-related surfing? I was a tad annoyed with Facebook and the other sites as well. Why are they allowing certain vendors to sync with specific products when unsuspecting folks are just going about their business?

The internet is becoming as intolerable as the stratosphere of TV. There are very few television programs on my radar anymore because I'm sick and tired of excessive advertisements. It's just not worth the time to sit down and watch a show when half the program is nothing but ads. On Monday nights I try to watch Mike & Molly because I enjoy the show. The same can be said for NCIS on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I like both Law & Order SVU and Criminal Minds. That just about does it for my TV viewing, aside from MSNBC News.

However, even my favorites are losing their allure at this point. I make the time to watch a show because I want to see the program, plain and simple, not be flooded with inane commercials. They are a such a waste, not just in the their unforgettable content but in their failure to entice me into buying whatever it is they're selling.

Irritated people who feel undue sales pressure rarely open their wallets. At least that's the scenario in my case.

*RELATED POST: 10/09/11, Fun Frustrations.

Tags: Web Design/Computer Misc