Driven to distraction--or to panic! (efferent)

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Shopping anchors (for example, [61]) attack center stage and often appear directly under the main navigation menu. The reader is accustomed to going to the top of the site first to find the major header (from a personalized store to major categories of things to buy and current hot activities like today's deals and selling).

The placement of the shopping anchor subverts the business as usual. When first opening up a USA TODAY [65] page, for example, an anchoral ad will cover content. The ad has an anchor that will collapse the ad, and the ad subsides to a smaller anchor on the page after about 2 seconds.

Screenshot used by permission.

Screenshot used by permission.

There are many types of products designed to help users bypass these popup ads, such as the aptly named "panicware" popup stopper [52] -- which can help panicking, hijacked customers restore some sense of purpose for identifying and following the informational links they want.

Looking at these ads as anchors provides an intriguing perspective: why are readers spending money to avoid these anchors? How do readers view the relationship between these anchors and the content page?

These ads are somewhat unique efferent sites, as the content is the anchor, and vice versa.