Worst Technology 2000-2010: The Decade in Tech

Spam and Pop-ups

These past few years were the decade of irritating spamming and pop-ups. On some days you couldn’t get online without being completely bombarded by spam mail and obnoxious pop-ups. E-mail spam has steadily grown since the early 1990s with botnets and virus infected networks sending about 80% of spam out into the world to unsuspecting Web surfers.  Pop-up advertising has gotten a little out of control as well—(cough cough, clear throat) Netflix—with most Internet users experiencing multiple unwanted pop up ads through the course of their normal interaction with a web browser. We’ve found ways to block and disable these pesky ads, but the irritation alone makes it worthy of a worst tech title.