Some sites that you visit have so many animated banners that it looks like a shooting gallery! Others will throw up 20 windows of ads when you try to exit the site. I call these tactics "scumvertising". I know of a number of people who have stopped using the World Wide Web due to scumvertising. Some say, "The Internet should be free of advertising!"...

.... pardon? Why?

The very nature of life on this planet is dependant on advertising. A pretty big statement for me to make, so here's a simplified justification:

In the animal world, the strongest survive. The most aggressive, the most brash of the species will have the tendency to be most successful in reproduction.

In the plant world, some plants use elaborate ornamentation to assist in their reproduction. Some flower perfumes are so strong, they can be detected from miles away which attracts the necessary insects to assist in pollination.

In the world of business, those organisations who attract the most paying customers grow. The ones that hide their candle under a bushel, no matter how good the product or service is, will die. Successful businesses advertise. They use the World Wide Web to do so. They pay others to display their ads which creates income for thousands of web masters. The ads also generate competition amongst businesses. The victor in the competition gains sales. The sales generate employment. The competition leads to lower pricing and refinement of product.

OK, so the comparison is taking it to the extreme; but we seem to be living in a society of rampant consumerism, where we want everything for nothing if possible, and we want it now. If it wasn't for advertising, such as seen on the World Wide Web:

• my computer would have cost more and I probably wouldn't have it
• the commercial software on my computer - as above
• my internet connection - as above
• freeware would not exist in the levels available today
• I may not be able to afford to offer as much information as I do to others - for free

Without advertising on our sites, the World Wide Web would be elitist - available to only the rich, the government and academia. The Internet and the World Wide Web, while having it's pitfalls as any human system does, is probably the best thing to happen to our species in a very long time. And it has been on the back of advertising that the WWW has grown at the phenomal rate it has.

In stark contrast, my dreams of the perfect world dictate there would be no need for advertising as money would not exist - but in my perfect world there would also be no need for computers. I love the Internet, and computering in general, but I would trade it in any day for a world without crime, pollution and crowding. The Internet has provided me with a living, computers helped me to emerge from the gutter and to learn to exist in our society. I now not just survive, I thrive. It has allowed me to communicate my message to an audience of thousands, and to learn many valuable lessons in life from others.

The World Wide Web is slowed down by advertising you say? Yes, that's correct. But not as slow as needing to leave my premises to go to the library to carry out research. I