ON SUDDEN AUDIO INFORMERCIAL WHILE WEB SURFING

NOWHERE TO HIDE

So I'm sitting there at my desk, Firefox browser open on a Windows XP Pro equipped Thinkpad, when all of a sudden I hear a couple talking about the merits of a particular face cream. 

I look around thinking "where is that coming from"?  The TV is turned off, as is the radio, and the phone is not off the hook.

The woman's voice continues, "I couldn't believe how fast it cleared up my wrinkles around the eyes"...I'm now getting really perplexed...where is this stuff coming from?  Look at the laptop, and realize it's definitely coming from the laptop speaker. 

I quickly look at all the tabs open in my web browser...I have over a dozen open on something I was researching...no, nothing there...most were pretty official financial sites...nothing that would have any streaming audio ads running...double checked it again...still Nada.

So I quickly went to the desktop on the PC, to see if there was a pop-up or pop-under that had gotten through the firewall AND the phalanx of pop-up Ad blockers on the computer.  Again, nothing...

The only other applications running was an Excel spreadsheet open in the background, along with my favorite Evernote (which by the by got a thumbs up from young old man Mossberg yesterday).

Nope, nothing obvious, yet the infomercial droned on...and I had not clear way of stopping it, other than hitting the mute button.  As I fumbled towards it however, thankfully, the infomercial ended and all was right with the world again.

Then it hit me...the snake oil salesmen (OK, salespeople to be PC about it) from two centuries ago, who had evolved their art to a science on modern-day cable television, had now started their assault into the digital realm.  They are now attacking my beloved Internet. 

Not that it's a surprise, given the economic realities and opportunities of a broadband Internet, it's just startling to be introduced to it so loudly and abruptly.  It almost makes one miss those quiet little pop-ups from the dial-up era.

Just to be safe, I saved all the tabbed pages in Firefox and closed the browser down.  Re-opened it with some anxiety, but happily, no infomercial.

I then checked on Google if there is a new type of streaming audio spam scourge spewing infomercials via millions of broadband connected PCs that I'd missed somehow.  The first item was promising, titled "Audio Presentations for your Marketing Success":

"The response rate to your offer skyrockets when you give visitors a professionally-scripted and designed audio presentation."

Now the tool here is to present web-site visitors with a canned audio presentation, but not broadcast it out like spam over the Internet.  More client-side driven rather than a server-side broadcast.

And I'm still not sure if I'd inadvertently triggered the infomercial via a web-site visit, or whether a new audio spam campaign coincidentally found my broadband connected laptop.

So I thought I'd post this experience, and see if anyone has had this happen to them.  This was a first time for me, and I'm curious about it. 

If it is a new way to audio-spam consumers, then I can't wait for Norton, McAfee or somebody to come up with a way to address it other than the mute switch.

Makes one almost want to re-think this "technology being grand" stuff that I seem to get excited about every now and then.

Comments

[Amol]

Hey even I started getting these intermittent audio blasts out of nowhere. I am trying to figure out where these originate from. I am using the Directwave Internet service, its slow. Also I have Norton Antivirus, but even that is not helpful.