Ad Technologies Put Users Second

Russia is a country that possesses a great and largely untapped talent for innovation in Internet technologies. This article will focus on one of the strongest trends in today's Russian Internet arena -- online advertising.

The Advertisers' Challenge

As numerous statistical studies of Russia’s segment of the Web market illustrate, the impact of online advertising is continually in decline. That forces most of the practicing Internet agencies to search for new ways to influence their target audience.

Announcing a real technological innovation seems difficult for today’s developers, as the standardization of technology is combined with a variety of snags and unpredictable obstacles, such as choosing and researching available software, etc. For the Web development organization, making an invention a widespread standard also requires that they overcome some serious problems related to browser manufacturer’s loyalty, market demand, and so on. Therefore, it’s much easier to take any existing and widely-accepted technology as a starting point, add a couple of finishing features, and proclaim it to be a brand new technology.

That’s really what two Russian Internet companies did. Both are specialized in interactive solutions development for online advertising: AdVerso Company, and IMHO Video International Advertising Group. The first promotes a technology called AdVerso, while the second presents a technological solution series under the ScreenGlide trademark.

AdVerso Technology

The first new advertising technology we’ll look at is AdVerso. The main feature of Adverso is an opportunity to present online ads over a Website’s basic contents.

A visitor to a Website that uses AdVerso might see any of the following (see samples at the examples page on their site):

• Short introduction splashes (“Teasers”) The ad is demonstrated over the Website’s contents.
• Interactive application launching (Macromedia Flash-based) Some user manipulations can be achieved without closing the main browser window (mail list subscriptions, service or product orders, etc.)
• Ad closing/minimization (“Reminder”) Pressing a “Close” button that appears within the active ad area, causes either an interactive application window to close, or minimization of the ad to the corner of the browser window.

AdVerso explains the advantages of its technology as follows:

1. The basic Website contents load first. After a page has completely loaded, the interactive animated banner (or application) starts. Moreover, the advertisement loading process is not perceptible to the user as they move around the Website.

2. If the user is not interested in the ad, they can close it immediately.

3. Adverso automatically checks the user’s computer configuration, so that it can provide the version of an ad application that’s appropriate to that particular system (including browser settings, operating system, plugins installed, etc.).

4. The advertiser has total control of the advertisement window’s activity, and can activate an automatic switch to “waiting mode” until the window is made active by the user.

5. Adverso offers all possible program-based ad combinations, incorporating the “Teaser”, “Reminder”, and interactive application functionality, as well as the option for advertisers to use separate modules independently.

6. Adverso provides great interactive facilities. Users can fill in questionnaires, purchase products, subscribe to discussion lists, make search queries and more, without leaving the Website that shows the AdVerso-based advertisements.