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I’m really sad that @polygon is engaging in some slimy advertising mechanisms right now. But honestly I think I’m more upset that (it’s likely) Microsoft paid them to do this.

On their site they have arrows on the sides of the page that allow you to browse to the next article or back to the previous article very quickly. I subscribe to polygon through RSS because I’m a news reader.

Earlier today when I switched over to Skype to answer a question, I clicked arbitrarily in my browser to get back to reading and lo-and-behold I was looking at a site for the Xbox One that I never asked to see.

Further inspection revealed that polygon was using space that had previously been designated as “free space” on the page to spawn a popup to this ad site. You can see in the image the area designated in magenta which is usually reserved for overflow of the site-browsing arrows.

It’s my feeling that this is a tactic I don’t appreciate. I think it’s bad for users and sets a horrible precedent for the internet in general.