MetroTwit Updates, Introduces Obnoxious Ads

MetroTwit, the desktop Twitter client for Windows that I've been using for a while now, has updated to include several new features. Most of the new features are great but one of them is irking me somewhat: the introduction of ads.

I want to make it clear right now that I fully support the idea of application developers making a living doing what they love, and in most cases, I don't mind advertisements showing up in an application I'm using, provided that they are out of the way and do not interfere with what the app is being used for. But the way it has been implemented in MetroTwit is irritating.

As you can see, they chose a prominent place to insert these ads (right inside your feeds), as opposed to a corner somewhere or even at the top of the window where a banner ad would fit perfectly. Obviously it's not strictly preventing me from tweeting or reading any particular column, but I cannot stand that it's taking up space where tweets would normally reside. This is a Twitter client, after all.

There is no way of getting rid of this ad space without paying a $15 fee. Personally I think $5 would be a more appropriate price for such a feature, but that's beside the point.

I've noticed several people on Twitter questioning the new ads, and MetroTwit's response has generally been "well, did you know you can place the ads into a different column if you want?" That's not good enough.

I'm the type of person that has never willingly clicked an ad on any website or application for any reason. Not once. I also use an ad-blocker whenever possible. If an ad can't be hidden/removed, I try my best to ignore it. Unfortunately, that's not possible with MetroTwit's implementation.

I can't even choose to have the ads show up in an unused column and then hide that column offscreen by shrinking the window (which is the way Tweetdeck handles columns); MetroTwit just forces all columns to fit into whatever window size you've chosen. If MetroTwit would handle columns the way Tweetdeck does, I would happily let them run their ads but then get them out of my sight. It would be win-win.

The only reason I'm even this upset about the whole thing is that I really like the application they've put together here (it's easily the best Twitter desktop client for Windows), and it's disappointing that they chose the most annoying way possible to monetize their product.

UPDATE: It turns out that there is one way to hide the ads. You can resize any other columns you're using and sort of "push" the ad-filled column offscreen. It's still a bit silly that a user would even have to do this.