Billboards on the Infobahn

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Several Web sites, including The Red Herring, Word, and Women's Wire are experimenting with a middle ground: simple interstitials that amount to a short interruption for the surfer. One of these forms is a "splash" screen, which pops up when you call up a Web page, and either goes away with a click of the mouse or disappears automatically after a few seconds.

America Online uses such ads on its proprietary network for subscription-paying members.

Interstitials aren't the only recent innovation in the advertising medium. Companies are experimenting with all kinds of new ways to draw in the customer. "People are sort of fed up with banners," said Modahl of Forrester. "They're not going to go away," she said. "But people are thinking of more innovative ways to advertise."

Some, for instance, are experimenting with elaborate ads sent by email. Netscape Communications, in one case, offers Netizens a variety of HTML- rich subscriptions and products at In-Box Direct.

Rich LeFurgy of Starwave

Advertisers also have been experimenting with sponsoring sites, and they are beginning to test another, more subtle way to push their wares called product placements. These allow content sites to link to sites where certain products are sold. This type of advertising, barely in its infancy, can range from linking a seemingly unrelated content site directly to a product site where goods are sold or vice versa. For example, Microsoft Network's online travel agency Expedia links directly with the online service's Mungo Park, a site featuring multimedia-rich reporting about world exhibitions.

Banner ads are being enhanced so that they flash or "morph" to grab the surfer's attention. Companies are experimenting with layering banner ads so that readers can click on them for more information without going to the advertiser's home page.

Lest anyone dismiss the simple banner ad altogether, Carlick is quick to note that the industry is still in its developmental stages. "We have an advertising industry that is barely two years old," he said.

Young & Rubicam's Ratner points out that even the commercials on the You Don't Know Jack show are accompanied by banner ads, the only way that a user can click and give the advertiser the satisfying counts on which so many companies have come to depend.

Whatever shape ads take online, Netizens, many of whom still rue the day that the Internet went commercial, better get used to them because the electronic advertising industry is booming.

One recent study by Frost & Sullivan estimates that 1996 Web advertising had 3.4 percent of the Internet's market share. Frost projects that figure will grow to 22 percent--$5.48 billion--by the year 2002.

The question is exactly what that money will be paying for. "Not only do we have to prove that ads make things better because they enrich content, but also do we have to prove the effectiveness of advertising on the Internet," LeFurgy said. "All that is assumed on television and radio. The Internet is held to a higher standard because it's new."