Welcome to the end of 2002! For some of us, it just can't come soon enough, and for others, we just wonder where the time went. Whatever your case, this is the time of year when we can look back and say, "man, that WAS LAME" to just about anything. Wanting to avoid the rush, and start the trend, I proudly announce my listing of the most annoying, irritating, and in some cases, outright filthy things about the Internet that were particularly poignant in 2002. In no particular order:

Gator and Gain Advertising Network

Die, irritating adserver software! Back to Hades with your unwelcome spyware and your insidious pop-ups! My other half had downloaded some software (GROKSTER) and the next thing I know, there are pop-ups on every stinking site I go to. The terrible thing is, that once I removed the offending software, the pop-ups did not stop, and the program itself does not come up in the Add/Remove menu. After about 1/2 hour (and I work on computers for a living) I finally found the culprit, hidden within the confines of a folder of a folder of a folder. I don't mind using freeware that is ad-supported, but this is downright thievery of bandwidth and sanity.

Popups of popups

I suppose in the hierarchy of hatred, beneath "spyware," you could easily place the popup. Nearly 79% of respondents in a recent poll said that pop-ups and other interstitial are an annoyance, compared to like 9% who said banner advertising was annoying. Being a web designer myself, I occasionally use pop-ups to give people new announcements or to draw attention, BUT NEVER TO ADVERTISE, and for the love of God, DO NOT make your pop-ups lead to OTHER pop-ups. I want to surf the Internet, not play space invaders by hitting the ALT+F4 key until the pop-ups stop. There are limits.

Make money from the Internet AKA MLM marketing.

I'm not bringing into question legitimate Network marketing, where people actually purchase goods/services at a discount, and make money from other people purchasing goods and services, I'm referring to the type of Internet marketing that seems particularly shady. "Get my free autoresponder and convince other people to get the autoresponder, so that they can convince other people to buy this autoresponder!" the ads scream, "and you'll be rich with our double dutch binary matrix of doom." OK, kids, put down the pyramid schemes and just start a chain letter. Its simpler and only slightly less legal than what you're doing.

People from third world countries with bank accounts they're just dying to share with you.

OK, who REALLY falls for this stuff? It's the same annoying message, only with different people. Honestly, I really don't believe your father is the fallen leader of the old regime, or that your paternal dog's previous owner's uncle's ex-girlfriend has 40 bajillion dollars stashed in some off shore account that he can't get to. Or that you're willing to shove 10% in my overdrawn bank account if I'll pretend that I'm your fairy godmother. I find myself doing one of two things with these e-mail addresses; reporting them as spammers to the appropriate domain, or if you really want to have fun, drop their e-mail address in one of those porn sites like "Naked midgets who like to put their heads in elephant orifices." They like it when you do that.

Ad banners that claim that you've won something

It's these types of ads that make me glad I don't suffer from epileptic seizures when faced with flashing lights. For those of you who click on them, allow me to clue you in...you didn't win anything. And yes, its the same for those ads that say you'll win something if you answer the question correctly, for even if you answer incorrectly, you'll still win the opportunity to make a purchase. Try it sometime.

Well, I'm sure there's more than that out there annoying Internet surfers, but the above items always hit the top of the charts. The underlying tone to all of the above is clear: deception, plain and simple. It wouldn't be so bad if "freeware" companies weren't so sneaky about what you're actually downloading, then you'd have a choice. Or if those folks claiming that you've won something were up front and said "click this for a great deal." The unfortunate part of the internet is there is little formal regulation of business practices. It's up to us to use a "dollar vote" and exercise our rights NOT to click or purchase the advertised goods. Only then will things change.