Ads on the Desktop: Worst Case Scenarios

In our recent review of the Lenovo IdeaPad U350, we couldn’t help but notice that the system occasionally presented pop-up ads for the Carbonite online storage service. We’ve seen some obtrusive promotions for trials before, but this was a new low. Carbonite’s popup box showed up seemingly at random in the bottom right corner of the screen, and could not be disabled or closed except by uninstalling the software. This got us thinking: Given the amount of money changing hands for this type of product placement on today’s notebooks, where could the trend lead? Where does a notebook maker draw the line? We have some ideas, and we can’t help but wonder if they might be right around the corner. While we have no evidence that any of these types of ad placements are being developed, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the future. Be afraid. Three-Finger Salute Ad Every time you press Ctrl-Alt-Del—usually out of frustration because a program is not responding—you may soon see an ad pop up that’s contextually relevant. Say, a mini billboard for Excedrin to relieve your PC-induced headaches.

The Boot Buddy Ad Although Windows 7 is faster in some cases than Vista when it comes booting into the OS, 40 or more seconds is plenty of time to kill. So why not enjoy some display ads while you wait? Snickers would make an ideal sponsor. Not going anywhere for a while?

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