Saturday, December 5, 2009

Respect the user's bandwith

The quintessential internet surfer does what he knows best - unearths an obscure webpage from the bowels of the internet. He is impressed by the content - its a subject he is deeply interested in. But then suddenly he is disturbed by the sound of music emanating from his measly laptop speakers. Yes, the page contained a youtube video which auto-started on page-load. The content of the video has nothing to do with the subject of the website. The surfer loses concentration, nervously glances at the video (which is embedded in a tiny 100x100 px frame btw). He has long lost the context of the real content of the website. He frowns in dismay when he realises that the video is almost 10 minutes long. He hits middle click on the tab in the browser. The music stops. He is no longer thinking about his subject of interest. He thinks, why. "Why should I be forced to download a video which has nothing to do with the real message of the website? Why is that video started automatically on page-load, thereby nullifying any chance of stopping it from being downloaded by the browser, apart from completely leaving the website itself? Why can website designers not be more bandwidth conscious?
He stops and starts writing this blog. Every new technology can be abused.

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