Most Annoying Technologies

Technological developments are usually well received and make life easier. But sometimes a new technology not only makes things more complex, but also frustratingly difficult and time-consuming.

Normally technological development is supposed to make life easier, quicker and more reliable. New advancements means old tasks are made more efficient and automate manual routine work.

Today I am going through few of those technologies which are most annoying.

Pop Up Ads

There is a strong resentment by some Web surfers towards pop-up ads. Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the internet intended to attract web traffic. Web marketers often do not understand the hard feelings generated by pop-ups. It works when certain web sites open a new web browser window to display advertisements.

Shaun Nichols: Sometime in the roaring 90’s, some enterprising advertising mind thought it would be a good idea to use pop-up browser windows to display advertisements. I like to think that there is a special spot reserved in Hell for that person, right next to the cast of “Friends”.

Flash Advertisements

You have just signed into MSN or Yahoo Messenger and see a pop up window with latest news and updates. You are doing your normal business when you are hit with a flash movie starts playing, blocking what you’re trying to view. The most frustrating thing is the close button which is not always at the same place and you have to search for it.

MS Office Assistant

The Office Assistant was a Microsoft Office feature to assist users by way of an interactive animated character. The Office Assistant was interfaced with the MS Office help content. Many people don’t like someone looking over their shoulder while they work. The Office Assistant has these irritating traits with a dose of annoying cartoon characters thrown in.

The Office Assistant has been removed from Office 2007.

Terms and Conditions

Terms of service can cover a range of issues, including acceptable user behaviour online, a company’s marketing policies, and copyright notices. People rarely read T&Cs and often used by companies to cover the backside of the product and service they are selling.

In some cases T&Cs are not just annoying they can be a danger as people rarely read them and click to accept them and thus bind themselves to those terms and conditions.

Error Messages

Error messages are often invasive and rude, halting the current activity, and demanding that you acknowledge them before you are allowed to continue. On the other hand, many error messages are ambiguous, failing to provide meaningful information, and at times are simply incorrect, potentially causing undue grief and expense to the innocent user.