Archive for October, 2006

Universal truth can be expressed in ten words or less.

Many remember the days when Yahoo was cutting edge and defined by its simple interface, fast response time and great search engine. Now that it’s become a media empire it’s missing all of those things. Worse, Yahoo has jumped feet first into the cesspool of animated, audio-playing, in-your-face advertising and feature spam that just makes my blood boil.

When it comes to people I want to talk, make friends and interact. When it comes to web sites and computers, I want them to shut up and serve me. If I wanted music I’d fire up iTunes. If I wanted animation, I’d watch a cartoon. If I wanted commercials, I’d turn on the TV. I want NONE of these things from an Internet site. I want information, service and support. Period. If you want it to look attractive, that’s great. Just don’t get in my way.
I’m tired of constantly bombarded by new offers and forced to bypass some new screen here and there. It started with PayPal. I log in and am not given my account screen but an advertisement for a new service and a mostly hidden button that allows me to decline. Why am I complaining?

Well, it has a lot to do with the original intent of the Internet — information sharing. While I put some time and energy into the way my web sites look (it is my job, after all), lately more and more I wish we could go back to the way things were done circa 1993: no inline images, no animations, no tiny fonts, no flash, etc.

This message is the start of a revolution. Take back the Internet by taking away all of the crap and nonsense that faceless corporate behemoths like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google use to program us. Down with style sheets, Ajax, and heavy graphics! Use Flash to make things work better, not to animate your stupid logo or create intro screens! No one cares!