Get Your Webpage Off Me!

Do you feel better after unloading your anger or frustration on something or someone else? I know I do. To be honest, it is the main reason I have a blog. Even though my rants may never reach the intended target(s), I feel better just getting them out of my head. And with the unlimited reach of the internet, it’s possible that some of my opinions find their way to the intended subjects.

With that as an intro, here is #35 on my list of things that get under my skin.

Everyone who has ever surfed the “internets” has, at one time or another, stumbled across at least a few “quicksand pages.”* Quicksand pages try to trap you in their electronic snare, and render your back button useless. Anyone who has ever peaked at a porn site knows what I’m talking about. You make one wrong click and suddenly you are trapped in a sea of pop-ups with little hope of escape.

At one time, porn sites, penis pill pushers, and mortgage sites were the only ones who deployed this less than scrupulous tactic. Now, “legit” websites are trying to keep you locked up on their turf. Today, I was reading an article that had an imbedded link to what I thought was a picture of the “Burger King, king.” I click… and no king, only the main Burger King page. So I attempt to return to my regularly scheduled reading, but no. My back button only refreshes the Burger King page. And I realize, Burger King has resorted to porn-site techniques.

In many ways, websites employing the quicksand method are like unsuccessful daters. They both turn people off by showing an unusual level of desperation. If a site has to resort to trapping surfers, it tells me that its content is lacking or that it has some other sort of defect.

So to all the net programmers out there…

Get your webpage off me!


* Copyrighted 2007 Gopher-Goof