Louis Lazaris wrote this great article making a strong case against using those vertical navbars on your website. The above image shows eye tracking diagrams of users visiting various websites, and just like banner ads, you can see how the eye naturally avoids reading into those areas. They're not even look at your vertical navbars! Note the last screen capture on the right is a Google search results page with no vertical navbars.
Like Lazaris explains, there are exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, your primary form of navigation should be horizontal, with three to five elements to choose form. Less is more, if you want your website visitors to click through as well as digest the content you are providing, you need to get in the habit of teasing them and not just try to force everything front and center.
Are there exceptions? Absolutely. Vertical navbars are okay for simple lists or calls to action, contextualized as a secondary navigation. And as Lazaris points out, sometimes the exception is simply, "a client who insists on it."
Why do designers still use vertical navbars? Most of the time is just an indicator of a novice designer that is lacking some fundamentals. We shouldn't see the use of vertical navbars as site's primary navigation if you except your website to be considered professional designed... unless of course, you really know what you're doing.
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