4 ms·

> In fact, closing the connection the instant the user clicks 'X' would actually give the site more information. How so?

wolfgang42 6y ago
You now know exactly the moment that they left your site. (It’s not much more information, granted.)
- withinboredom 6y ago
  I used to set points every paragraph in my blog, where once it came into the viewport would let me know how far down the page people got. It was very insightful to write better blog posts. Letting people know when someone closed a tab, changed networks, or who knows what with the network isn’t any useful information.
jrochkind1 6y ago
Because it would tell them exactly when the user clicked the "x" -- the exact point the connection was closed -- which the current behavior does not do, as it's probably not predictable (sanely or possibly at all) exactly when the 'x' was clicked based on when the connection was closed. Not that that's particularly useful info. But technically it's more info revealed.
- overscore 6y ago
  I think you can already do this using the unload event in the Page Lifecycle API and the Navigator.sendBeacon() function. It won't be reliable on mobile, though. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/sendBeacon https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/s...
sparky_z 6y ago
They'll know exactly when we stopped interacting with their website. Imagine a phone system that didn't make an audible noise when the other person on the line hung up. At some point you realize that they've chosen to stop listening and you've been talking into to the void, but you don't know for how long.
- withinboredom 6y ago
  Old phones didn’t tell you when someone hung up. It took a few minutes for the phone to make an annoying beep that there was no longer a connection. This used to happen quite a bit back in the day...
  - stevenicr 6y ago
    I remember it take a bit after someone hung up before you got the annoying beep beep beep beep.. but I don't remember it being minutes.. maybe like 30 seconds? 20? you could usually hear the phone rattling into the cradle if it was that type of phone, and if so you would not if they just used thier finger to push down the disconnect/hangup switch.. I seem to remember you would get a dial tone when someone hung up on you too.. not immediately, that might take 8 seconds? and if you just left the phone off the hook listening to the dialtone after a while it would go to that super annoying loud beep beep beep thing.. Kind of like a warning that your phone was 'off the hook' and doing nothing - which meant you should hang it up if you wanted to be able to get a call or call out.
    - eythian 6y ago
      > I seem to remember you would get a dial tone when someone hung up on you too.. not immediately, that might take 8 seconds? It's very dependant on where in the world you were. The dial-tone on hang-up thing that you get all the time in (older) movies and TV shows for example is because that's what happened in California (at least parts of, I forget the details) where movies were made. This didn't generally happen in other places. Where I'm from IIRC you got a rapid beep. And the whole thing about the caller having to hang up was never a thing there either. Different places, different equipment.
    - withinboredom 6y ago
      There was also the cordless phones, some of which didn’t tell you the other person would hang up. I can remember talking to my girlfriend and taking her silence as her wanting a more in-depth description of whatever... only to have a phone ring in my ear halfway through it when she called me back.

wolfgang42 6y ago

You now know exactly the moment that they left your site. (It’s not much more information, granted.)

withinboredom 6y ago
I used to set points every paragraph in my blog, where once it came into the viewport would let me know how far down the page people got. It was very insightful to write better blog posts. Letting people know when someone closed a tab, changed networks, or who knows what with the network isn’t any useful information.

jrochkind1 6y ago

Because it would tell them exactly when the user clicked the "x" -- the exact point the connection was closed -- which the current behavior does not do, as it's probably not predictable (sanely or possibly at all) exactly when the 'x' was clicked based on when the connection was closed. Not that that's particularly useful info. But technically it's more info revealed.

overscore 6y ago
I think you can already do this using the unload event in the Page Lifecycle API and the Navigator.sendBeacon() function. It won't be reliable on mobile, though. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/sendBeacon https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/s...

sparky_z 6y ago

They'll know exactly when we stopped interacting with their website. Imagine a phone system that didn't make an audible noise when the other person on the line hung up. At some point you realize that they've chosen to stop listening and you've been talking into to the void, but you don't know for how long.

withinboredom 6y ago
Old phones didn’t tell you when someone hung up. It took a few minutes for the phone to make an annoying beep that there was no longer a connection. This used to happen quite a bit back in the day...
- stevenicr 6y ago
  I remember it take a bit after someone hung up before you got the annoying beep beep beep beep.. but I don't remember it being minutes.. maybe like 30 seconds? 20? you could usually hear the phone rattling into the cradle if it was that type of phone, and if so you would not if they just used thier finger to push down the disconnect/hangup switch.. I seem to remember you would get a dial tone when someone hung up on you too.. not immediately, that might take 8 seconds? and if you just left the phone off the hook listening to the dialtone after a while it would go to that super annoying loud beep beep beep thing.. Kind of like a warning that your phone was 'off the hook' and doing nothing - which meant you should hang it up if you wanted to be able to get a call or call out.
  - eythian 6y ago
    > I seem to remember you would get a dial tone when someone hung up on you too.. not immediately, that might take 8 seconds? It's very dependant on where in the world you were. The dial-tone on hang-up thing that you get all the time in (older) movies and TV shows for example is because that's what happened in California (at least parts of, I forget the details) where movies were made. This didn't generally happen in other places. Where I'm from IIRC you got a rapid beep. And the whole thing about the caller having to hang up was never a thing there either. Different places, different equipment.
  - withinboredom 6y ago
    There was also the cordless phones, some of which didn’t tell you the other person would hang up. I can remember talking to my girlfriend and taking her silence as her wanting a more in-depth description of whatever... only to have a phone ring in my ear halfway through it when she called me back.