The problem with Web ads

So I'm waiting to see AP's video on the Lexington plane crash through Yahoo's viewer, except I forgot I was on a Mac. So scrub any chance of that working correctly.

But of course, the system did manage to serve up MasterCard's latest ad flawlessly -- Yep, an ad promoting flights to Ireland, Las Vegas and anywhere in the world for free. Just use your MasterCard and win up to 500 round-trip airline tickets.

So here we have 49 dead and MasterCard pimping its air travel promo. Of course, there used to be a time when real people actually monitored such things to make sure they didn't happen.

• Creating an algorithm that at least alerts someone to possible problems -- a few bucks from the corporate kitty
• Actually using people to spot such problems -- not that expensive
• The result without it -- tasteless