September, 28th 1999
V3 URLS (The Internet Identity Company -http://come.to) has changed their default to an Ad Frame instead of a
Popup Banner! For those who aren't familiar with them, V3 URLS offers cool sounding
URLS that automatically forward visitors to your homepage. For example (these are made up names!):
Say this is your URL:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hangar/4133/index.html
You can have this V3 URL instead:
http://fly.to/outerspace
Then, when a user types in your short and cool-sounding V3 URL they are taken to your GeoCities homepage.
The Popup Days:
All was good until August 1999 when V3 decided to switch to using Popup Banners to advertise. While advertising has
been accepted as a neccessity on the Net, users just bristled at the idea of a Popup Banner on their homepage! We listed
them here on Popups Must Die! and created a temporary solution to defeat their Popup windows.
The Users Speak:
Suddenly in September, two of the main guys over at V3 URLS (Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten and
Hans Poul Veldhuyzen van Zanten) wrote to me. They said they saw my page, read my complaints, and wanted to know
what my suggestions were to make things different. They pointed out that getting rid of the ads was not an option, but they
were open to ideas from their users.
So, I wrote back and suggested that instead of Popup Banner being the default choice, the Ad Frame should be the default. Boris wrote back and said: "We did it! Frame is now the first option!". I checked it out and sure enough V3 URLS has changed the default from Popup Banner to Ad Frame instead!
V3 URLS Listen to their customers!
"I want to be the coolest redirect service and I understand talking (and listening!) to users is the only way to stay the coolest redirect service."
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (Concept and Design - V3 URLS)
Three cheers to V3 URLS for listening to their customers and giving them the freedom to choose whether they want a Popup Banner or not! They still offer a paid service with ABSOLUTELY NO BANNERS whatsoever if you'd prefer. But, for the average guy who wants a good, cool-sounding URL redirect, the Internet Identity Company has proved themselves to be the type of company that stands out!
If you would like to see what the new Ad Frame looks like, check it out:
http://come.to/boris
And be sure to write to tell Boris thanks for letting the users choose:
boris@come.to
If you already have an existing account at V3 which displays a Popup Banner, go into your preferences
and choose the FRAME option instead. You can put it either at the top or at the bottom of your page. And, stay
tuned for more features coming from V3 URLS soon!
Once again - ugly domain names are a thing of the past...
