blue trane's Journal: Web pages jumping around

I was just reading the introduction to an article on Slashdot's front page. Suddenly, the page refreshed, and reloaded leaving me with a view of the top of the site. I had lost my place, my concentration, and the train of thought I was engaged in.

The early internet wasn't like this. Now, when a page loads it jumps around. So I start reading some text, and suddenly an ad above the area loads, and the text jumps off the screen.

This happens even on wikipedia.

Is it a deliberate strategy on the part of advertisers to get you to notice their ads?

Is it an unintended consequence of loading pages in parts, not leaving enough space for the top parts?

Is my viewing experience not important to the developers?

Whatever, it is really annoying to me when i'm reading something and then suddenly the browser moves it out of my view.