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Zack Whittaker
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Five reasons why the Web drives me crazy

By Zack Whittaker | March 17, 2010, 10:27am PDT

Summary

While the web can be a fantastic, irreplaceable technology, it drives me crazy on a day to day basis. A top five list of annoyances

Topics

Download, Web, Facebook, Video, Corporate Communications, Channel Management, Marketing, Zack Whittaker

Blogger Info

Zack Whittaker

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker started playing with computers before he could even tie his shoelaces; although that skill wasn't discovered until he was 10. Amongst many things, he is a good-for-nothing, pink sock wearing, British student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK working towards a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy.

In between studying, drinking, and occasionally sleeping, he works with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (of which he suffers from), and gives talks and lectures on disabilities.

He grew up in "Robin Hood Country" in Nottinghamshire, UK for the best part of his life, but still heads there on occasion to see his ever-supporting and loving family, godchildren and his friends. Although due to his age he may seem inexperienced and misguided, but he's already totalled up many years of work, education, knowledge and general (mis)adventure.

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As those who know, and granted the vast majority of my audience will not, those such as I from the north of England have limited anger thresholds. It only takes the tiniest of things for us to boil over the surface and to start throwing things around the office in a fit of rage. Equally, almost as soon as it’s happened it’s over and done with and acting as if it never happened.

I have had five of these episodes in the last few days, and I’m blaming you, myself, my friends, my colleagues, my family and anyone who has used the web at any point in their lives, ever. We are all as bad as each other, and all equally guilty of the following.

1. The attention grabbing video headline.

The more I search YouTube for the occasional mood pick-me-up, the more infuriated I get with the typical video names and headlines. I more often than not search for something to make me laugh, yet am encountered with non-descriptive headlines which say “Family Guy - funny!!” or “Jon Stewart - hilarious!”.

Really?! Because I truly thought that Family Guy was a biblical cartoon series and The Daily Show was a documentary. I had no idea that these would be funny (sarcasm). Normally if you find something on YouTube with an adjective describing the hilarity of a video, you’ll probably find it not to be; similar to the sociological reference, if you find a country with “Democratic” in the name; you’ll find more often than not a dictatorship style government.

2. Sponsored downloads which don’t exist.

Students miss many lectures in an academic to watch a missed episode of television on the night before. I do the same. But when it comes to downloading these episodes the day after, sometimes encoding or uploading takes more time than others as these downloads are provided by others.

So when you do your searching and a list of torrent sites come up and you start your clicking mission, a lot of the time you will find no available downloads but these sponsored, high-speed downloads available which catch your eye. It’s a big lie.

There’s some clever coding or something behind the scenes which churns up Google with all of these links, but when you go to download, it’ll either cost you money, malware or a dodgy download which does no good to your computer (and your essay in progress).

3. “Become a Fan” groups on Facebook

There are pages on Facebook which now require you to “Become a Fan” to see a hidden something, either a message or a video, a picture or something relatively banal when the content around it hypes it up to the nth degree.

As joining these groups spread through status updates on your news feed, these quickly become viral as the intrigue and mystery takes hostage the mind and the need to find out overpowers us. Even still, they’re annoying and they make you and your Facebook friends look like idiots.

4. Flash

I can see why Flash has lasted as long as it has with no real competitor for all these years, and Silverlight is better but not as dynamic nor as widely used. I’m praying that HTML5 will offer some recompense to the slow, hard drive and memory churning, bulky junk that Flash has. It’s the reason why my browser memory usage jumps sky high whenever I visit anything outside my initial homepage, and through Flash advertisements, this churns up even more memory.

Adverts I can live with as they keep the vast majority of the web free, but go back to using GIF’s wherever you can, please.

5. Website updates which screw you over for days on end

You know what I mean, especially Twitter and Facebook which update every so often but nothing drastically, just a few behind the scenes changes which screws up the formatting, the links, applications and chat windows, and generally the comfort of being set in your ways and not liking change.

Change can be good, but it’s nice to be told about it. I don’t like to be out of my comfort zone, especially when someone decides to paint my front door red overnight “for a laugh”. It leads to many worrying thoughts about the night before.

</rantOver>

What annoys you about the web on a daily basis? Leave a TalkBack.

Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, where he studies a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy undergraduate degree.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked at Microsoft as an intern a few years ago but have since cut my ties with them. I'm very grateful for their support over the years and the acquaintances I've made and the positive impact they've had on my future career. In spite of this, I remain impartial and unbiased to my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and US organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I am highly involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, a charitable organisation which seeks to represent every student at either Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels or Paris campuses. Between May 2009 and December 2009, I was elected as a voluntary, non-salaried position - as welfare officer for Rutherford College at the university.

Between October 2009 and December 2009, I was elected as a voluntary, non-salaried position - as ordinary council member for Kent Union Council, the governing body for the students union. No other company, body, governmental department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

(Updated: 23rd February 2010)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker started playing with computers before he could even tie his shoelaces; although that skill wasn't discovered until he was 10. Amongst many things, he is a good-for-nothing, pink sock wearing, British student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK working towards a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy.

In between studying, drinking, and occasionally sleeping, he works with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (of which he suffers from), and gives talks and lectures on disabilities.

He grew up in "Robin Hood Country" in Nottinghamshire, UK for the best part of his life, but still heads there on occasion to see his ever-supporting and loving family, godchildren and his friends. Although due to his age he may seem inexperienced and misguided, but he's already totalled up many years of work, education, knowledge and general (mis)adventure.

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Talkback Most Recent of 37 Talkback(s)

  • Don't like 'em, don't use 'em
    Aside from Flash, your gripes aren't really with 'the Web', they are with specific Web sites that you choose to access.

    The solution is simple, quit using them.

    One of my favorite sites did a makeover a few months back. While I'm sure they had reasons to make the changes that they did, the makeover made the experience (in my opinion) of using their site quite unbearable. I shared my concerns with the webmaster and pretty much quit using their site.

    The his credit, the webmaster was very good about communicating with me, and explained that the changes were mandated by others.

    The bottom line is that like any other consumer transaction, you have the choice to continue doing business with the source or your grievances, or not.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    techwatcher
    03/17/2010 11:25 AM
  • A for your comments
    Straight to the points. Couldn't be clearer.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    TxM2xTx
    03/17/2010 01:31 PM
  • A plus plus plus I had stated
    but ZDnet doesn't like the plus signs !!!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    TxM2xTx
    03/17/2010 01:32 PM
  • RE: Five reasons why the Web drives me crazy
    Wow, you're getting grumpy in your old age.

    1) Video headlines: Most people are retards. 'Family Guy - funny!' happens because most can't give anything more than a second of thought before something shiny distracts them.

    2) Sponsored downloads: Malware and Page Views -- that's all there is.

    3) Totally agree about Facebook Fan pages. My friends are retards but I love them so I put with dumb status updates.

    4) Flash. I have no problem with Flash. Maybe when you finish school and get a job you can get a computer that has some horses. Unless of course, your job is blogging in which case 386 lives on.

    5) Have to agree with you again....some web page changes do not seem to get anything more than unit testing. But I get what I pay for I guess.

    Hey, I noticed some kids on your lawn...go get your broom.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    alsw
    03/17/2010 12:29 PM
  • go get your broom..
    ... to see them off by beating them with it? or so you can employ them to clear leaves?
    Or: perchance a game of Quiddich?

    Back on topic: Flash - sucks, Facebook - sucks, the web - sucks.
    I use about 5 sites usually, and only two of those when buying and selling.
    The internet is a drug, you need to try to limit it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    stevey_d
    03/17/2010 03:37 PM
  • Flash. Memory hog??????
    I remember my second or third computer had a
    Pentium 2 266MHz processor with 512MB of EDO RAM
    and Flash had no affect on that at all. Granted,
    Flash had just started being used, but still. I
    now have a Intel Core2Duo 3.06GHz and 4GB of DDR2
    and Flash is all over the place. Still no problems
    here. Yes, I think he is still using that 386 or
    486 in his parents basement. He probably still
    downloads pics of Sarah Michelle Gellar!!! LOL
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jlundq8578@...
    03/18/2010 12:36 PM
  • Flash worked ok on my old Pentium3 866mhz the last few weeks
    My main computers motherboard broke down the other month and while waiting on the replacement parts mostly due to having to save a couple of weeks for them, I was stuck on an old Pentium3 866mhz I put togeather from old spare parts. It could not run Windows XP on it as it was to slow, but it was able to run the latest copy of the Ubuntu 32bit Linux OS just fine. When it came to sites with flash on them it had no problems at all. I was able to do all my web browsing, Youtube watching and e-mailing perfectly fine. I was also able to listern to my music and watch videos offline on it. The only thing I could not do was play any of my games sad
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NZJester
    03/19/2010 03:59 PM
  • Flash for 32-bit Ubuntu?
    I thought that you could only get 64-bit Flash for Linux.

    Flash is awful (or it lets people create absolute junk presentations)!

    Yesterday I was at a site which was a "Flash Magazine". It took so much CPU power, that I couldn't even use the Open/Save dialog window on my PC. I couldn't do anything until I killed my browser (luckily Task Manager was able to open).

    My CPU is only 5 or 6 years old. When my PC plays up, it is usually because I foolishly allowed Flash to run on some page.

    lehnerus2000
    ZDNet Gravatar
    lehnerus2000
    03/21/2010 07:34 PM
  • RE: Five reasons why the Web drives me crazy
    "Students miss many lectures in an academic to watch a
    missed episode of television on the night before."

    Half the lectures are something in somebody else's
    field, the other half are some professor who thinks
    some political position is Pure Evil and we need to
    fight it with our last dying breath - and the one
    lecture in my field just re-iterates what I already
    know in the dryest possible manner. No thanks.

    "'Become a Fan' groups on Facebook"

    I don't really care what they hide anymore. I just
    ignore them. The only groups I join are the ones that
    I wanted to join in the first place because I know and
    trust them - not the ones that advertise all over the
    place.

    "Flash"

    You really need to use the NoScript plugin in Firefox
    for Flash. Otherwise it becomes a royal pain when some
    Flash thing is poorly designed and locks the browser
    up.

    "Website updates which screw you over for days on end"

    And here in ZDNet, most bloggers are pretending that
    webifying an app magically gets rid of all install
    issues and compatibility problems.

    Alas - it just morphs them into new problems! The old
    problems may be gone, but the new problems are
    generally just as bad.

    If people don't like the brand new look of a recently
    updated web app, or if it breaks something in their
    browser, they're generally screwed until it gets
    fixed. Very few websites offer the option of going
    back to an earlier, older interface.

    The problems haven't really been solved. They've just
    morphed into new problems.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CobraA1
    03/17/2010 12:33 PM
  • I hate the ads that come walk across the screen
    and won't close. Even seen a few on ZDNET. Sorry I don't want some digital guy walking up, tapping on the screen of my monitor, trying to sell me something. Go back and crawl to the underbelly of the web where you belong.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    JM1981
    03/17/2010 01:06 PM
  • I hate ads that break out or resize.
    I hate ads that break out or resize themselves.

    They're horrible.

    I want to read the content, but nooo - some ad
    has to pop up.

    Covering content I want to read - it's bad.
    It's horrible.

    ZDNet - PLEASE set up a policy where ads are
    allowed ONLY if they don't do stupid stuff like
    that.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CobraA1
    03/17/2010 02:01 PM
  • AMEN ! !
    I have never agreed more to anything else !

    The few times I find out where they come from, they get on my NAY - list !

    Whatever they may be advertizing will NOT get my custom, as it too will be added to my nay-list.

    Those ads are the ones I really hate !
    Nothing else on the web get that from me.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    hkommedal
    03/20/2010 01:46 PM
  • Zack has said a lot of silly things
    but being a Northerner makes up for a great deal. Cheers.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    HollywoodDog
    03/17/2010 01:27 PM
  • PDF Forms
    The story goes like this: you go to a site where you need to fill a form (say, your insurer). You'd think that in this day and age you can just fill it on screen. Nope. Its a PDF document with no editable fields (that's 99% of them). You have to print it, fill it by hand, scan it so you can send it back (even if they want you to fax it WHY IS ANYONE STILL USING FAX??). Add that to my contempt for Flash and you'll understand why I consider Adobe the scourge of the web
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ImaGremlin
    03/17/2010 02:52 PM
  • RE: Five reasons why the Web drives me crazy
    My pet peeve: The data entry form that uses a drop-down list of states. Who's the genius (NOT!) who thought this was better than letting us hit 'tab' and enter two letters? And why does everyone follow this genius (NOT!) scheme?

    For that matter, once I enter the postal code, don't you know what city and state I live in? I've yet to see a smart website that takes the zip code first and autofills the rest.

    Yeah, it's a minor thing, but to see it over and over and over again, with no evidence that anyone is using their brains, multiplies the aggravation. (Wait ... oh crap, those kids are on my lawn again...)
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jpdemers@...
    03/17/2010 02:56 PM
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