Blogs now featuring full page ads just like old media

I was quite surprised today to find that Gizmodo had a full page ad for an education company. Personally the ad did not appeal to me however I do find it interesting that blogs are landing ads that are basically the equivalent of a full page ad in news papers or magazines. I see this as a welcomed development for new media companies as it gives them an alternative revenue stream that should be more reliable then advertising network context ads.

I have also noticed that News.com.au have been experimenting with more and more attention grabbing ads that feature low quality flash video as well as flash ads that expand on hover. For me these ads bring back memories of literally flashing banner ads of the 90s. I am pretty sure that for the intended demographic these ads work well but they simply annoy the rest of us. The evolution of online advertising is still going on as people have become accustomed to text ads it seems these intrusive ads are back in vogue.