VentureBeat

Forbes.com has become possibly the most high-profile publisher to stop using a controversial type of online advertising sold by San Francisco’s Vibrant Media, Ad Week is reporting. The IntelliTXT service converts words in stories into links that spawn small pop-up ads when users mouse over them. We wrote about the service back in April, and the initial reaction was mixed, with some publishers saying they got positive feedback from users, and some journalists saying it crossed the line that is supposed to separate editorial content and advertising. Forbes.com signed up in August and had a similarly mixed experience, saying it received positive feedback about the ads, but that its “editorial staff was uncomfortable with the concept.”

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