As has been mentioned in other posts above, it seems doubtful that ad companies (at least large ones) want these ads to be deliberately misleading.
If you click on an ad that isn't relevant to you, there are three major harms caused. One, your time is wasted closing it and going back. Two, the advertiser may have to pay extra for a useless click. Three, Google (for instance) has to consider the likelihood that this is a useless or fradulent click, and possibly reimburse the advertiser if so.[1]
All of these are bad for Google (for example). The offset gained by a few dollars in revenue is probably not going to counter that, because what they really want is users to continue using their search engine and they want advertisers to be happy with the clicks they pay for. Those are really important for them to keep. Tricking you into clicking useless links is bad, bad, bad. (Adwords hosted on someone's website is another story; that person might not feel the same way.)
But if, on the other hand, the ad actually is relevant to you, then it's great for all three parties if you click it. So I'd hesitate to attribute these UI choices to trying to fool people.
Disclaimer: I can't remember the last time I clicked on an ad anywhere on the internet, except by accident. But that doesn't happen to me on Google or other reputable advertising-based sites.
If you click on an ad that isn't relevant to you, there are three major harms caused. One, your time is wasted closing it and going back. Two, the advertiser may have to pay extra for a useless click. Three, Google (for instance) has to consider the likelihood that this is a useless or fradulent click, and possibly reimburse the advertiser if so.[1]
All of these are bad for Google (for example). The offset gained by a few dollars in revenue is probably not going to counter that, because what they really want is users to continue using their search engine and they want advertisers to be happy with the clicks they pay for. Those are really important for them to keep. Tricking you into clicking useless links is bad, bad, bad. (Adwords hosted on someone's website is another story; that person might not feel the same way.)
But if, on the other hand, the ad actually is relevant to you, then it's great for all three parties if you click it. So I'd hesitate to attribute these UI choices to trying to fool people.
Disclaimer: I can't remember the last time I clicked on an ad anywhere on the internet, except by accident. But that doesn't happen to me on Google or other reputable advertising-based sites.
[1] see e.g. http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...