chumbox

English

Etymology

chum +‎ box, suggesting the chumbuckets used in fishing, full of rancid bait.

Noun

chumbox (plural chumboxes)

1. (Internet marketing) A grid of clickbait advertisements on a webpage.
   • 2014 April 22, Alene Vincent, “Alene Vincent on Twitter”, in Twitter‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 May 2017:

     ctrl+f "chumbox" http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5639892/how-weaponized-clickbait-took-over-the-web zero results :(

   • 2015 June 4, John Mahoney, “A Complete Taxonomy of Internet Chum”, in The Awl‎^[2], archived from the original on 2017-05-26:

     This is a chumbox. It is a variation on the banner ad which takes the form of a grid of advertisements that sits at the bottom of a web page underneath the main content. It can be found on the sites of many leading publishers, including nymag.com, dailymail.co.uk, usatoday.com, and theawl.com (where it was “an experiment that has since ended.”)

   • 2016 October 12, John Stonestreet, “Beware the Chumbox”, in Break Point‎^[3], archived from the original on 2017-05-26:

     You know those bizarre ads at the bottom of a lot of web pages? “10 foods that will kill you,” “Creepy historical photos,” things like that? Here are a few that caught my eye lately: “Which presidential politician are you?” “Which actor are you?” or even “Which Kardashian are you?” Then you’re supposed to click and answer a few questions about yourself to find out. It’s called the “chumbox,”—click bait junk advertising that doesn’t deliver.

   • 2019 October 4, Tiffany Hsu, “You Will Be Shocked by This Article”, in The New York Times‎^[4], →ISSN:

     But to some news publishers, already fending off fake-news accusations and struggling to retain readers, chumbox ads have turned from annoying to toxic. The New Yorker stopped posting them in 2016.