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This was also true of popups. It still is. Yet it became such a scourge from people misusing it that browsers interested in providing their users the best exper
by LamaOfRuin 10y ago
This was also true of popups. It still is. Yet it became such a scourge from people misusing it that browsers interested in providing their users the best experience provided an option to disable them (where we are now with auto-play) and eventually turned on that option by default. Pop-up blocking became a feature users would switch browsers for, forcing all vendors to add it. If advertisers continue to use auto-play and ridiculously large animated gifs the way they've been going, I suspect it's only a matter of time before this potentially useful feature also defaults to off.
- JadeNB 10y ago> > 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 some (cough PeopleSoft cough) even think that it's the best way to display certain status notifications, but does any user like them?
- rtpg 10y agoA good use case is linking to a FAQ item in a form. You don't want to navigate away, but the item is usually small, so a pop-up in a small window is good.
- JadeNB 10y agoWhy not have some sort of CSS / JavaScript trickery so that the FAQ item can be displayed or hidden without any sort of pop-up at all? Anyone who browses with JavaScript off is tech-savvy enough to open up the page in a new tab. (Anyway, for me, this definitely falls under the "web site thinks it's the best UI; I don't", but I recognise that this is almost by definition a matter of personal opinion.)
- jimmaswell 10y agoThis was the use case for frames.
- jimmaswell 10y agoA frame that displays the item you clicked on on the right, with the faq links on the left, would be great for this use case. The only thing I think was wrong with frames was that the main url didn't point to the frame you had open, like url#framename.
- Navarr 10y agoAnd that still works today. The types of popups that are blocked are the ones that open automatically. Is there a good use case for automatic popups?
- random_rr 10y agoPop ups are awesome when they have content I want. They're a quick way to draw attention to something important while retaining the page they are on. These aspects of usefulness unfortunately apply to ad-infested pop ups.
- Eridrus 10y agoRight 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.
- Too 10y agoThat 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.
- xenadu02 10y agoNot 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.
- JadeNB 10y ago> 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 interaction (or information display). Although I definitely want, in an operational sense, PeopleSoft to show me a pop-up when I click on the relevant button, because that's the only way to get to certain information, what I really want, in an aspirational sense, is for it to display the information in some other way, without a pop-up at all.
- tempestn 10y agoThe 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-SearchTempest-Results-Mode http://support.searchtempest.com/hc/en-us/articles/205166847...
- Buge 10y agoI like it when I open a youtube page and it automatically plays.
- biot 10y agoEasily handled with a prompt: "This site is attempting to auto-play media" [Allow once] [Always allow site] [Block site]
- sesqu 10y agoWell, media players and help sections are decent use cases for popups. Opening external links in a new tab is also great. I've even played some browser-based games that used popups to minimize chrome, enable alt-tabbing and force a cookie reset.