15 Internet Annoyances and How to Fix Them
It seems that every day we go online and there's some new type of nagging Web annoyance, from fake emails phishing for our bank details to Farmville spam from Facebook. Here's how to fight back.
Mon, February 15, 2010
PC World — It seems that every day we go online and there's some new type of nagging Web annoyance to deal with. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about auto-playing video ads, leaping pay walls to read the news, fake emails phishing for our bank details, or Farmville spam from Facebook. But for now, we're on our own. Here are 15 of the most annoying things on the Internet, and how to work around, ignore, improve or fix them.
Slideshow: Tech: 9 Things I Still Hate About You
You Must Register
My abbreviated rant on pay and registration walls: No. Impressive as it as that sites can track your visits without any sign-in process, asking to cough up money after a limited number of articles--I'm looking at you, Financial Times--is silly if you're not a regular reader.
The Fix: Some sites, such as the Wall Street Journal, will let you in via aggregators like Google (GOOG) News. So if you're blocked, try a Google News search on the subject. You can also try snipping some of the text and plugging it into a search engine, in quotes, to see if another site has quoted or summarized the article.
Social Networking Overload
Between Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare and now Google Buzz, there are just too many social networks to keep track of. Sure, you could pick one and stick with it, but then you might only be paying attention to some friends while neglecting others. It's the worst kind of information overload.
The Fix: Use a program that aggregates several social networks into one interface, such as Digsby or Meebo. You might not get the full functionality of your favorite network, but at least you can keep an eye on status updates with minimal effort.
This Ad is a Video
Is it just me, or have Web sites with auto-playing video ads become more prevalent lately? Congratulations, advertisers, you got me to listen to your pitch by sheer force. Only now, I hate your brand, if only I could remember what it was.
The Fix: Here's a neat piece of Windows software called FlashMute. It installs to your system tray and can deny Flash access to your audio hardware. Just click the icon or hit Ctrl-Alt-M to switch it on and off. Note: Anti-virus programs tend to flare up when visiting FlashMute's download page. The developer says it's because FlashMute uses the same method of hooking into your browser as some types of AdWare, but it's only intercepting sound from Flash and other Web sources. Fair warning.
