What Do You See?
While surfing the internet recently, looking for things to be angry about followed by pictures of cats in outrageous situations to lighten my mood, I stumbled upon something we’ve probably all experienced by now: a pop-up ad cleverly disguised as a poll. Now, this was nothing new, I’ve seen these before; but this one in particular forced me to take a step away from the computer, catch my breath, regain my thoughts, laugh at a cat, and come back and try again, yet still a little unsure that prolonged exposure to the stupidity of this ad.
The pop-up I saw showed me with one of those eye-puzzle pictures, where it appears to be something from one angle, but from another it’s something different, like two faces and a chalice. This one in particular was an old woman, or from another perspective, a space ship; two things which are seen so commonly together it’s no wonder this puzzle is so creative. That wasn’t what caused me to think I was caught in some gratuitously elaborate prank though. It was the wording of the poll.
“What do you see?” inquired the ad. “Only 67% answered correctly.” You read that right. Only 67% answered correctly, about what they saw. I’m still not sure what terrifies me more about this: that 33% of the people who participated felt the need to lie about what they saw, or that this website was actually aware when they were lying.
That’s right folks, mind reading technology exists, but they use it for the most boring purposes imaginable. As soon as you click “old woman” an alarm goes off in a room filled with technicians in Sandusky, Ohio letting them know that you darn-well saw a spaceship. Yet, while I was thinking of all the better situations I could use this for (I can finally know if people really like my bean dip; they say they do, but there’s always so much left…), I realized that the purpose of this pop-up apparently wasn’t to educate the masses on the differences between old ladies and spaceships, but to drive traffic to a T-Shirt web site, which I discovered after clicking “I see neither” (a lie).
This revelation was even greater than the mind reading computer. I have a website, and I can’t think of a greater and more cleverly deceptive way to bring people to my website. People love to share their thoughts, no matter how offensive or uninformed, and people love to tell what they see; watch the news for five minutes and you’ll see we live in a country filled with professional eyewitnesses. So here is a brief list of several vague and poorly worded pop-up ads I’ve come up with coming to a computer near you, which will bring you to the my website.
- Who Wore It Best? (You will be shown two pictures of Popes John V and Paul III) – Which Witch Is Which? (You will be shown two typical witches but given no options to pick, or further information) – Who Is the Current President? (George Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Woodrow Wilson; only 67% answered correctly!) – Which Tree is More Coniferous? (There are no pictures, but you can pick “This one”, “That one”, or “Huh?
Author is an expert in Hindi sms and has recently done a great research on sms.He has done great work in the field of Hindi sms
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