The internet is an integral part of my day. Not only do I need to use it for my work, but now it's gotten to the point where I cannot function properly without it.
Whether it's to check up on the news, to finding directions, to finding out movie times, to finding solutions to any number of problems - sometimes I wonder how I ever managed to do things without the internet.
But there are just some things that bug me about the web and some things that just simply annoy the heck out of me. Not only do they slow down my productivity, but they are also a drain on my energy, resources and time.
Below is a list of 10 things that I hate about the web...well, it's not so much that I hate them, but something that I wish more people would do something about.
1) User Name And Password Overload
How many user name and passwords do you currently use? I guess it would be all fine and dandy if you had the same user name and password for all the sites that you use, but in reality, it doesn't work that way.
Some sites need numbers in your password, some restrict certain symbols, some require a minimum length in both user name a password, some restrict the length of your user name and/or your password to a certain maximum.
The end result is that you have some kind of multi-variation of your user name and password spread across many different sites.
The ones that really bug me are the sites that supply you with a password (usually some nonsensical combination of letters and numbers) and won't allow you to change it.
Sometimes I sit at a log on screen of a site for several minutes trying every combination of user name and password I can think of. I also now have to sometimes look in my email inbox under the folder "Passwords" - a place where I store all my emails that confirm my account details.
I guesstimate that I probably use over 50 sites that need user names and passwords and probably another 20 or so sites that I don't log onto that often, but still require a user name and password nonetheless.
2) Viruses
I remember a time when viruses only came on unidentified diskettes. Then they only came via email to those who were unintelligent enough to delete them.
But now we have to deal with malicious software hidden on web pages and scripts. Fortunately I haven't been particularly affected by viruses, but the one thing that really annoys the heck out of me is my virus checker that runs in the background.
In essence, it's not the viruses that I hate, but it's the precautions that I have to take that I hate.
It slows everything down and even when I pare back on the settings, my routine virus checks seem to take forever. Not only that, but it now takes almost 7 minutes for my machine to fully boot up before I can even run any applications.
3) Java Applications On Websites
I have a computer science degree and I know about the advantages of Java...yes it's portable and yes it can run across all platforms and all, but come on - it's 2008! Does it really need to take that long to load it up and to run the application?
Any time I encounter a website that has a Java application, I make a mental note not to visit the site again. It just takes forever for the page to load and the worst thing about it is that you can't really do anything until the Java application has finished loading.
Maybe back in the late 1990s or early 2000s I can understand the slowness and everything - but more than 10 years have passed and in today's world, speed means everything.
There are so many new web applications out there that can probably do more than Java and can load in a fraction of the time.
Java was supposed to revolutionize the web - now it just feels like a dinosaur.
4) Email Spam
Do you remember the days when your email inbox was clean and only had messages from your friends and family?
Well those days are gone and it seems like no matter how many new email addresses you create, spam still has a way of finding you. Despite some of these spam guards and eliminators, they still seem to persist.
In my inbox, I'd estimate that only 15% of it is real email - the rest is just junk.
5) Pop-Up Ads (Even Though Pop Ups Are Disabled In Web Browser)
When pop-up ads were first introduced, it started to annoy so many people that web browsers began to add pop-up blockers to prevent these annoyances from showing up.
Even though I have my pop-up blockers on, sometimes they still have a way of showing up.
One of the most annoying ones I've ever encountered is the one with all the smiley faces and what makes it annoying is that they actually say "Heelloooooooo!". Sometimes if I've forgotten that I have my speakers on, it makes me jump out of my seat!
6) Websites That Won't Allow You To Leave Without Clicking The "Cancel" Button
There are some websites that won't allow you to leave unless you click on "Cancel" or "OK" on a pop-up box. I find that a lot of these kinds of websites are the ones that try to sell you some sort of e-book or software.
Sometimes when you try to close the window, they "trick" you into believing that there is an operator that you can chat with before you leave in the event you have questions about the product being sold.
What makes it tricky is that sometimes they use a little reverse psychology on you and if you don't read the pop-up box carefully, you might stay on the page - I usually find that they will ask you to click on "Cancel" to really leave the page, otherwise click on "OK" to continue reading about their amazing offer.
7) Websites That Have Audio/Music That Play When The Page Loads
Having music or audio files play on a website is cool....yea right! It was probably cool back in the 1990s but today it's just uncalled for.
There are some pages where this would make sense - say a musician's website. But having music playing on personal website or a blog is just downright unnecessary.
When I do encounter a site that has music playing in the background (and I'm not expecting it), the first thing I'll try to do is find the source of all the noise and try to put a stop to it and if I can't find it, I'm usually out of there.
8) Transparent Ads (Ones That Scroll Across Screen)
First there was the pop-up ad. Now there's the transparent ads....you know....the ones that suddenly scroll across the screen while you're trying to read the content of the website.
Or how about those ads that follow you as you scroll down?
The thing I hate about these ads is that they always like to sit where the content is or they position themselves over something I wish to read.
Getting rid of these types of ads is sometimes tricky because they sometimes purposely make the "close window" button really small or in an awkward place they you'd usually not think it would be.
9) Flash-Based Splash Screens
Does anyone actually sit and watch flash-based splash screens any more?
When they first came out, I was fairly interested in watching them - it was something unique and something that seemed to be pushing the boundary of the web surfing experience. It was a novelty back then...but the novelty has worn off.
These days, I could care less. Even on sites that I've never been to before, I'm usually the first one looking for the "Skip intro" button.
10) Firefox and IE incompatibilities
Don't you just love it when you're in the middle of an online application form of some sort and then you get to a screen that tells you that your web browser is not compatible?
I mainly use Firefox for all my web browsing, but I still come across sites that tell me that certain things are not compatible with Firefox. Sometimes when I come across a website that says "Best viewed with Internet Explorer", I just have to laugh....come on! Get with the times already!
What I hate the most is when you are using a particular site and you push some buttons or wait for some sort of action, and nothing happens. You sit there and wait, push the same buttons again, but still nothing happens. No messages appear and you don't know if what you've done is successful. It's only later when you try it again on Internet Explorer that you find out that the site wasn't set up for Firefox (a little warning would have been nice!).
So those are the top 10 things I hate about the web - but even though I hate these things, I don't think I can even fathom the thought of life without the web!
