Comments on: Most Annoying Website Features Revisited

By: david s

david s — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:53:17 +0000

3 of my biggest pet peeves (though I have a long list of internet peeves all of which could easily be on the top of the list) are: 1. Being invited to try software on the website and/or post comments and spending a few minutes going step by step only to be told at the end that I “need to sign up or register to continue”. Which is something they didn’t tell us at the very beginning because they figure we’ll sign up after wasting all that time and effort. 2. The GOOGLE homepage going from a simple sophisticated search to a big annoyance. 3. When you are on a very busy looking website and all the drop down boxes are set to “open” if you run your cursor over them. And all the other links open up little boxes when you run your cursor over them as well. You’re trying to move your cursor to a search box or other link and stuff keeps opening up and dropping down as you move your mouse. ARGGGG! In the old days nothing droped down, branched out, or opened up unless you actually CLICKED on it. But now everything is set to open. You need to run your cursor carefully around and through the page like a maze just to get to one side or the other.

By: Maciek

Maciek — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:15:03 +0000

I would add:

- Having to select your wolrd region before accessing any data. I just want to download a driver/manual/look up the products! Make a website that doesn’t require me to select a region… Yes it’s possible!

- Flash intro

- JavaScript links that doesn’t allow me to open links in tabs by simple middle click.

- Having to send email request and/or registering to obtain product data. Some companies are so afraid of disclosing specifications of their products that they require to send email requests for them and/or registering on their website. In such case, guess what? Yes, i immediately move to a website of another company, where I can just view/download the specifications immediately, without registration.

By: Salman

Salman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:58:53 +0000

Ads INSIDE the content.

I find inline ads to be the most frustrating item when viewing a long and lengthy article on a website. Flash banners are more frustrating than text or image ads as they use up all of your browser’s resources and more. And you never know when you’ve reached the end of the article.

By: rich

rich — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:49:07 +0000

What about noise pollution? Some site, once loaded, play a loud announcement or play music, this annoys and irritates the carp of me , imaging you are working at a quiet night or in a working in a public place such as the library.

By: Ash

Ash — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:31:29 +0000

You must have experienced an annoying advertisement on sites like yahoo or msn which expands if you place your mouse anywhere near to that region. You need to specifically click close to get rid of that.

Thats the most annoying thing to me these days.

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:35:36 +0000

@Wandergirl: Indeed. Animated, flashing ads definitely make it hard to focus on the content. Thanks for stopping by.

By: Wandergirl

Wandergirl — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:47:38 +0000

+1 on excessive ad space, but even worse than that for me are ads that blink a bright color. I can’t read the content because I’m so distracted! That’s a sure fire way to drive me away from a site.

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:25:23 +0000

@TrainWreckIdeas, oh yes! Excessive ad space can be very distracting and is often a big turnoff. It makes me doubt the credibility of the website.

By: TrainWreckIdeas

TrainWreckIdeas — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:18:14 +0000

You forgot excessive ad spaces. Those things annoy the hell out of me.

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:40:30 +0000

@Kurt, yes those websites that force download of music files (or any files) are just plain scary. Right now, after having recovered from an attach last March which required me to restore my computer to factory default, I am especially wary of those kinds of sites.

However, in many cases those websites are innocent. They just happen to be using files that may or may not be compatible with a user’s browser/software…

By: Kurt Avish

Kurt Avish — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:24:04 +0000

For sure two things I really hate when I visit a website or a blog are:

1. Pop ups that keep appearing before me even when I click the close button.

2.Annoying music files that instead of playing they start to get download by IDM on my pc and I have to ban the whole url on IDM.

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:50:26 +0000

Haha. YES, the mandatory registration should probably be removed from the internet. I can almost understand it on high traffic websites because it dramatically cuts down on spam. But when I see it on websites which get little to no traffic, I am baffled. It’s like they don’t want any user interaction.

And poor ad placement is bad too. Although, I am so used to excessive ads from reading The New York Times or other online periodicals. So I have been trained to hold onto a thought.

By: Forsaken@Domain Marvelous | Domain Name Information |

Forsaken@Domain Marvelous | Domain Name Information | — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:16:05 +0000

The most annoying feature for me on blogs (and other websites) is the mandatory registration required to access basic features. I have seen some blogs requiring registration to comment! It simply drives me crazy and the best I can do is look out for the X button on the tab (For those who did not understand that, I meant close that window :p )

“In your face” ads also do not hold much favor from me. These ads are usually found in the middle of an article, which breaks the chain of reading and thought.

Pop up’s as usual, are the most annoying of all. Pop up ads should be renamed to:
“An invitation to leave my website….for good”

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:46:45 +0000

@Brian, haha. Sorry to set you off.

Yes, I agree lightbox popups are so much better than the ‘new window’ popups… Sometimes I disable JavaScript in my browser. And its such a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, many of the features that I DO like depend on jS.

By: Brian D. Hawkins

Brian D. Hawkins — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:09:45 +0000

The lightbox, fly-in or other unblockable popups doesn’t bother me if it’s setup to display once a day or less. I hate the popups that bring up another browser.

Automatic music and silly animation graphics might seem cute on a fourteen year old’s MySpace page but I loose respect for a blog or site that’s there for business.

Look you did Shirley, you got me started.

By: Velvet Blues

Velvet Blues — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:01:10 +0000

Yes, animations that cross the text are quite distracting. Snow isn’t too bad. Matt of WordPress does it on his site: http://ma.tt/

But I have seen some people do the same with autumn leaves, and that actually caused me to leave the website.

As for the pop-ups I agree. They aren’t too bad if tastefully done. But I have had some websites which present me with a light-box style popup on every visit and after every 10 or so pageloads. That gets annoying very quickly.

By: Jen Patton

Jen Patton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:47:35 +0000

I think this is pretty complete- I have a really hard time with the animation that looks like falling snow or sparkles. I find the site very hard to read with that on there.

I am torn on the pop ups- if they are tasteful they are ok with me but the obnoxious ones have to go.