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Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

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Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#312

Post by matt_morgan »

mgkimsal wrote: post #204
matt_morgan wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't tell them yes or tell them no. Test, monitor, and promote the path that leads to the best success rates, acknowledging that user growth may drive success in the longer term. Take the long view, basically.

need also to look beyond a month or quarter. my wife has quit going to several sites altogether, and in other cases can not buy on a website, because of pop-up stuff. So... if they're measuring for "email signups" then - w00t! - sweet! - numbers are so high! What about actual sales? Or repeat sales? Lifetime value of a customer?

I don't think I was very clear but yes, that's what I meant. You can't just look at the short-term gains of the promotion; if it suppresses repeat visits then that's a cost. And yes, it's hard to do, and is an art as much as a science.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#314

Post by wfunction »

codingdave wrote: post #165
wfunction wrote: post #61

CNN especially gets on my nerves. They seem to have gone out of their way to do everything they can to make sure all plugins/extensions that try to block it fail.

I have edited my hosts file so anything from cdn.turner.com is routed to 127.0.0.1. Works like a charm for CNN.com. All the text, none of the media.

The problem is sometimes I DO want to watch the video. I just don't want it to always autoplay.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#316

Post by mathw »

sametmax wrote: post #281
DrBazza wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the amusingly named 'expertsexchange' site, and the stackoverflow copies. Google shoved them down the ranking pretty quickly. Shame they don't do that to pinterest.

I always read that "expert sex change" instead of "experts exchange" for some reason;

I never saw it that way, but you have now set me up to chuckle randomly at the memory all day. Thanks!

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#317

Post by Too »

Eridrus wrote: post #217
JadeNB wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > Some websites have legitimate use for autoplaying media. Some users (believe it or not) actually _like_ their videos autoplaying when they scroll through their Facebook feed or whatever media site they visit. > This was also true of popups. It still is. Is this analogy really correct, in the sense that there are legitimate , user-focussed cases for pop-ups? I know lots of web-sites want me to see pop-ups, and som…

Right now , I don't think people generally want popups, but they became popular well before AJAX. Pop-ups that open new tabs are still useful on sites where you're unlikely to want to navigate away and are prone to the same abuses.

That is pop-up on click, a user action. I don't think people despise that as much as pop-up at any random time while you are reading stuff.

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#318

Post by Too »

massysett wrote: post #6

This behavior is so bad that I have changed my browsing behavior. I visit only selected, trusted news sites, as "free" sites are horrible offenders here. Google is much less useful while on desktops as it is likely to return obnoxious websites. So far I have not had a bad autoplay problem on iOS. However a growing problem is obnoxious pop up ads that are difficult to escape. Overall more of my Internet usage is shift…

Wait. Are you saying that a sandboxed web site is less safe than an app with (usually) full access to your contacts, identity, messages, location and photos?

Re: Dear Google, Apple, Mozilla, and MS: Please End Auto-Playing Media in Browsers

#319

Post by tempestn »

JadeNB wrote: post #259
xenadu02 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only is the analogy correct, the problem has the same solution: require evidence of user intent. Pop ups work just fine when spawned as a result of a user clicking on a link. Videos can start playing when a user taps or clicks on them.

> Not only is the analogy correct, the problem has the same solution: require evidence of user intent. You make a very good point, but I'm not totally sure that it is the complete answer. I agree that it is clearly right for my browser to display pop-ups, and play videos, when I indicate my intent that it do so. My question was not whether that should happen, but whether any users want pop-ups as the method of intera…

The ability to launch popups (on user click) is vital for our "Direct Results"[1] option at searchtempest.com, although admittedly that's quite an edge case.

http://support.searchtempest.com/hc/en-us/articles/205166847...

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