Most Annoying Things on the Web

While the Web has some wonderful things, it also has its share of annoying aspects. Here is a little list of the things I feel impede, rather than enhance, the web surfing experience.

Animated GIF files. Animated backgrounds, Oy Vey!!

Pages with more banner ads than "real" content.

Sites with scripts that when you close the window, it opens one, two, or more other windows with "before you leave..." types of messages.

Images that assume you have a really huge screen.

Scrolling or blinking text!

In sites that have links that change color when you pass over them with the mouse: ones that use a Java solution instead of a simpler script. My old alma mater's web page had a dozen Java applets on its home page (which reloaded every time you went there). Now that is slow.

Probably the worst site I ever saw had a homepage that was nothing but one huge imagemap. Unfortunately, the image failed to load, preventing navigation to any of the other pages!

Text in a color that is too similar to the background color and is hard to read.

Broken links.

Obnoxious MIDI files that play in the background, and can't easily be shut off.

Obscure plug-ins, especially if they're required simply to navigate the site.

Have something about places on the web that you find annoying, dumb, or just plain poor design? Drop me a note and I'll add it to this page.