Monday, September 15, 2008

Observations of a Surfer (in 2008)

Two recent observations that imply that web surfing isn't exactly 'there' yet as a user experience:

Captcha

When I submit a comment to someone's blog, I usually copy my well-crafted, thoughtful comment before running the gauntlet of submit/captcha because I have a subconscious fear, based on hard experience, that things are going to go very, very wrong.

Web 2.0 and Ajax

I have a habit of clicking on a window before scrolling, to ensure that it is 'active'. This was never a problem until all the Ajax stuff: now, that real estate is often a latent feature or gizmo that is just waiting to fire.

I've become subconsciously afraid to click in a browser window: it is a minefield.

The Upshot

I don't know what to do with this information. This may be a silly rant, but it is intended as a sudden realization.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've found that if your window is maximized, no one ever puts anything on the far left of the page.

Unknown said...

My blog tracks comments as people type individual characters. This way I get to see your drafts, and learn a LOT about what people "almost" say just before hitting Cancel. Speaking of this, we need to talk, "friend".

Buddy Casino said...

"My blog tracks comments as people type individual characters."

I knew that some sites have a auto-save feature, but I never realized the owner could actually read what I type in real-time. I find that disturbing... am I the only one?

Anonymous said...

re: tracking. If this is true, I wonder if WordPress or the blog owner should have a stated privacy policy?

re: "friend". Readers, I regularly condemn Eric's blog to him in person so no worries there ;-)

CodeToJoy

Unknown said...

Yeah, I don't really track comments as you type. But with AJAX, such a feature is trivial. Once you start clicking and typing in a web site, someone could be tracking your every move.

Vincent said...

... assuming you allow javascript.

We should all block JavaScript by default and only allow it on trusted sites - like we used to do with cookies when they had security and privacy flaws.