I deliberately didn't say 'banners' because even that is misleading. Why on earth we need to have a banner format in the first place? How did they come about?

I met a friend a few weeks ago and he told me that one of his friends refers to the traditional banner format as 'fish fingers'. He is sick of them. That just about sums it up. They are reviled as an advertising format. They don't work. Many think they are dead (together with most of web display ads).

The story of traditional banners reminds me of the story about the 35mm film. I'd heard it a few years ago in Holywood, while visiting the Kodak theatre where the Oscar ceremony takes place. A very jovial guide explained to me - when I asked why 35mm for the film format in the first place - that when Thomas Edison asked George Eastman to supply film for his new camera, Eastman asked him if he had any particular size in mind. Allegedly, Edison replied: "Just about this", using his thumb and a forefigner to show the width of the film. Eastman, being a precise person, measured the distance between two fingers and it was exactly 35 millimeters. That's how the format was born.

I have a feeling that something similar has happened with banners as well. Somebody somewhere at HotWired thought about how to use the web page for advertising, couldn't comprehend any other model apart from display ads and then decided that top of the page, 468 x 60 pixels would be OK, probably because it fitted well with HotWired's masthead (HotWired being credited for running the first banner ad ever, although that is disputed by a whole year). How else would anyone arrive at 468 pixels exactly as a good width for a web ad!?

I am also proud to say that by some accounts the first ad had a Serbian word in it (being for Coors's 'Zima' drink - Zima in Serbian means 'winter' and the drink is named after it - really), but this is inconsequential to this story. Other sources claim that the first ad was for AT&T, also not relevant here.

What is relevant is that traditional online display advertising is in an undisputed decline, with paid-for search and more bold 'rich media' ads on the rise. 'Fish fingers' are dying out. Good or bad? Your call.