HomeIt absolutely amazes me that some websites start making sound as soon as you go to them. Day after day I stumble upon sites that have music or advertisements that decide to play just because I’m there, not because I asked it to.
Besides the fact that it is completely obtrusive and widely known to be horrible ettiquete, think about all the people surfing the web at work. Do you think they will ever visit your site again if it starts making noise advertising the fact that you aren’t doing the things your boss is paying to do? I didn’t think so. And don’t get me started on the sound objects that don’t even give you an option to mute.
ESPN.com for instance has lost my business from this point forward. It used to be that when you visit espn.com a small video would play on the left hand side of the page. I emailed them a while back complaining about how this was a huge nuiscence. To my amazement I actually received a response a couple days later:
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately undert the current format the videos will play without you being logged in ahead of time.
However with our new website that we expect to have completed by sometime in January, you will be able to navigate the new ESPN.com website without having the videos pop up on the screen.For live assistance with this or any other issue, please call Customer Care at 1-888-549-3776 (ESPN) between 7:00 am and 2:00 am EST.
Regards,
Corey
ESPN.com Customer Care
Well, ok so maybe this will change? It didn’t. In fact, now for the new and improved espn.com front page, Jay Saunders takes up half the page and he has a virtual conversation with Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs talking about this new Ford F-150. GREAT! So now its not just a small box, it’s two guys having a conversation on the whole page!
WEB DEVELOPERS AND MARKETERS PLEASE GET A CLUE!!!
