Mystery Guest and I cruised to Yahoo! this evening and were both suddenly taken aback by what we saw:
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Here’s a detail of the center of the screen:
As you can see, they weren’t hacked; it’s just the start of an incredibly poorly designed overlay ad for an SUV. This isn’t just poor user experience, it’s dangerous branding. Granted, within 4-5 seconds, the ad changed and I realized what had happened, but those first few firing synapses didn’t give me the kind of warm, cozy feeling that Yahoo!’s shooting for. I’m also of the opinion that the ad isn’t particularly relevant or effective – what the heck does “They can’t be overshadowed” have to do with an SUV? The end of the animation provides no clue:
Am I just not hip enough to “get it?”
