Advertising shouldn’t interfere with the navigation of a Web site. I’ve already written about that blimp, which floats over the headlines and text of news site Ohio.com. Not to felt left out, Cleveland.com, Ohio.com’s competition to the north, also runs annoying, page-navigation-interfering ads.

A recent example involves a page-peeler advertisement for a PGA golf tournament.

Upon entering Cleveland.com, the ad automatically folds out, covering a major chunk of the front page, then, a few seconds later, folds back. If you choose to close it before it closes itself, you must click on the dark blue area at top, marked “click here to close.” Clicking the ad closed, however, does not really “close” it. When you move your mouse pointer over to the top corner to grab the scroll bar, the ad reopens, causing you to have to “click here to close” again, which really doesn’t close the ad — again.

In a partial sleep-induced coma one morning (where was my coffee?!), I must have repeated this process three or four times until I  realized that I had to maneuver around the folded-corner ad to grab my navigation bar and scroll down the page. What a terrible user experience!

Advertisers struggle to grab users’ attention online. Eye-tracking studies repeatedly show people ignore banner advertisements. Usability god Jakob Nielsen calls it “banner blindness.” So page-peeling ads on sites like the Cleveland.com one break out of the traditional, ignored spots for advertisement online to capture readers’ attention. Do they work? Or better yet: Are they worth it? Probably not.