Forbes: Chat Gets Pushy

Some sites are replicating online that annoying feature of bricks and mortar stores: the pushy sales clerk. Instead of the perfume counter hostess spraying you with eau de toilette, java daughter windows are popping up in front of site visitors with headshots of sales people asking, "Can I help you with some managed hosting solutions today?"

Rackspace.com has six employees monitoring its site in shifts for 20 hours a day. The company's CEO said that about one in three people approached begin conversing with the sales agent, and about half of those go on to the next step in the sales cycle.