We all know the feeling. You’re happily browsing the internet minding your own business, when all of a sudden you come across something that just rubs you the wrong way. Maybe it’s a new social media platform that tries to force you to connect with people you don’t want to, or an update to an existing website that changes the layout in a way that makes it more difficult to use.
These things can be annoying, but they’re usually nothing more than a minor inconvenience. However, there are some internet innovations that people really hate so much so that they’ve become synonymous with terms like “disruptive” and “annoying.” Here are some of the most hated internet innovations of all time.
In this list we will exclude the most obvious - wich is the good old virus - because, well, even if we can all agree that is the most hated thing on the internet, it would be better suited in another type of list. More like, the most dangerous internet creations.
Autoplay videos
Autoplay videos are one of the most despised features of modern websites. Whether it’s a news site playing a video clip automatically as you scroll past it, or a social media site autoplaying videos in your feed as you scroll through, this can be a real annoyance. In a 2016 survey performed by consumer education website Consumer World, 92.3 percent of web users said that they found autoplay "annoying," and 76 percent of respondents said that they were likely to try to silence the sound immediately. Most users said that if they couldn’t silence the sound, they’d leave the site.
Clickbait
One that gets worse and worse every day is Clickbait: Misleading, occasionally clever and continuously time-wasting, clickbaiting has become impossible to avoid on the web today. You know the type - articles or videos with titles and thumbnails that are designed to get you to click on them, but the actual content is totally different from what you were expecting. Clickbait headings have become the common place for posts and videos to go viral with clicks but when used out of context you will likely just frustrate your audience causing them to not trust any future content you put out.
Pop-up ads
There's nothing more annoying than trying to read an article online and having a pop-up ad get in the way. Pop-up ads are the bane of the internet. They litter the web, covering your screen with anything from a coupon to a fake virus scan. Some sites use pop-ups to get you to sign up for a newsletter, services, or a password. However, some websites use them to make money by taking advantage of your desperation for information. This is called a forced redirect, and it can be really frustrating. Forced redirects are popping up all over the internet, but there are specific scams that seem to be more common than others. Thankfully, there are now ways to block these ads so you don't have to deal with them.
Spam
Email spam isn’t just annoying; it causes real damage, and it’s more effective than you might think. Dated all the way back in 19 78, Spam, also known as unwanted or unsolicited email, usually spreads malware through links in the message, which can damage your computer or harvest sensitive personal information to send to hackers. Spam also includes phishing attempts, with emails posing as legitimate websites in order to trick the recipient into revealing passwords or other sensitive information. Today, more than 70% of all emails are spam.
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is the practice of registering and using domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to trademarked terms with the intent to profit from their good will. By selling them to the trademark holder or other commercial enterprise. 3 years later, Panavision sued Toeppen for diluting its trademark - setting a legal precedence for future cybersquatting cases.
Cookies
Before the days of internet cookies, websites had no way of knowing if a user had visited before. Cookies were created in 1994 by Lou Montulli, a web browser programmer at Netscape Communications. The idea behind cookies was simple – they would allow people shopping at an e-commerce site to store their items in a virtual shopping cart. In 1995, Montulli applied for the patent for the cookie technology, and just the same year it was implemented in version 2 of Internet Explorer.
Although cookies have already become an integral part of the web experience, they were working entirely behind the scenes. This is where the first concerns appeared as well. While the public enjoyed the comfort that came with individual tracking, the more tech-savvy user raised their concerns. That led to the publication by the Financial Times in February 1996.
And so, the issue of consumer online privacy was born. Let’s remember that at that point in time, cookies were not used for advertising purposes. It didn’t mean, however, that their potential wasn’t noticed and considered in a much broader light that far exceeded their initial purpose.
These are just a few of the most hated internet innovations. But despite these annoyances, the internet is still a great place full of amazing things. So what others would you add to the list?
