The Most Annoying Things on the Internet, Part 2

*See part 1 here..

To recap, I whined about videos and sideshows last week, and this week I'm getting on the case of pop-up ads,  music, and newsletter subscription sites. I hope you agree, if only so we can band together and create a grassroots uprising against these Internet faut pas!

Pop-up ads 

I don't know if you know anything about marketing, but from what I can tell interruptive marketing is quickly going out of style; consumers are getting too good at blocking these ads out of their attention span, nevermind the fact that these ads are just super annoying. The thing is, websites are catching on to the fact that we all have pop-up blockers and are now using a new generation of pop-up ads that aren't exactly pop-ups but that completely obstruct one's view of the site! Since mobile browsing is becoming more common, these ads are becoming increasingly annoying; it can be very challenging to quickly close these windows on a touch screen. 

The absolute worst is when these pop-up-type ads are asking me to subscribe to their newsletter...

The Most Annoying Things on the Internet, Part 1

Slide shows: 

I do not understand why this phenomenon seems to be taking over the internet. It seems that every website I go to presents information into a slideshow. As I'm sure you have noticed, slideshows are particularly common when photos are involved, and this is definitely one of the most annoying things on the internet.

For example, I love geeksugar.com, but whenever I want to view the curated collections of products they are so good at putting together, I have to view a slow and cumbersome slideshow.

Whenever I view articles on Mashable like this fun collection of reflection images, I get the warm fuzzies because they provide the option to view the slideshow as one page. It's like they get me! When websites do not give me any options, I am irritated right away.

It's time-consuming and a huge turn off. The worst slideshows by far are those which load a new page with every click and are set up in such a way that you have to scroll down every time to see the full image or text. Some sites offer user friendly slideshows that do not actually load a new page with every click, but rather move seamlessly from image to image (like the Mashable slideshows). Others, while opening a new page with every click, are user friendly enough to auto-scroll down to the photo, requiring less effort.