Thanks to the good folks at the Internet Advertising Bureau, we can all look forward to even bigger advertisements staring us in the face as we browse the web. Yes, this is the kind of article that will make you want to break things - don't say we didn't warn you.

It seems that advertisers have been increasingly concerned over the fact that not enough of us are clicking through on those wonderful banner ads that we've been blessed with. So the IAB formed a task force, comprised of such forward-thinking entities as Disney, AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, and DoubleClick. The results were released on Monday.

According to IAB Chairman Richy Glassberg, "We think the advertising agencies needed a little better palette to create their advertising messages on." In other words, they haven't figured out the optimal way of getting in our faces just yet.

So what will this mean? A new type of advertising dubbed "skyscrapers" which will run up the side of your computer screen - as well as rectangular ads that pop up all over the page, kind of like network TV where it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the programming from the commercials.

These new and bigger ads will undoubtedly take longer to load as well. But, according to Glassberg, "it is going to allow you as a marketer to do so many more things." Like make a whole lot of really pissed off enemies.

"Click-throughs" on conventional banner ads have plummeted from more than four percent several years ago to less than half a percent today. This to us would indicate that people don't really like advertising on the net all that much. But then, what do we know?

Internet Advertising Bureau

Adbusters