As I mentioned before, I am going through and talking about various news and finance sites I like and use. Today, I will talk about USA Today’s money page.

At first glance, there is much to recommend it;  the page is packed with information, the site is trusted as a source of news and, as we have discussed elsewhere, they have an awesome stock screening tool.  In fact, this would be an ideal news portal except for one thing…

There are too many ads! 

Now, do not get me wrong; I understand the need to monetize content. I know that someone has to pay for the servers, the overhead and (lest we forget) the writers. However, there has to be a balance, and the good folks at USA Today opassed it a long time ago.

Most bothersome are the full page ads that insert themselves between you and a link. For example, you click on a headline to read the rest of a story about e-trade. However, before you can read the rest of the story, they take you to a full page ad for the new Honda Civic. I do not want to see an ad for a car, I want to read the story (that is, after all, why I clicked on the link).

The ads are simply too much. They invade the entire site, making using it absolutely a headache.  If they did not have such an awesome stock screener, I could think of no reason to go to this site at all.