SCN: Dvorak

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes  

=============================  


(John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine, excerpts)---Here are solutions to my 
top pet peeves...

...Zone off the Net  

While the Internet 2 Project is attempting to zone the Net on some 
level by giving academia a separate network, it's not good enough.  
One Internet made some odd sense early on, but now the concept is 
dated. There should be separate Internets for specific purposes with 
different structures and gateways. There should be an e-mail 
Internet, a streaming-media Internet, an IP telephony Internet, a Web 
Internet, and yes, a porn Internet.   

...Limit URL length to 60 characters  

If I have a million pages online and I want to go to page 781,987, my 
URL shouldn't have to be anything other than 
www.dvorak.org/781987.htm. The designers of database systems 
that produce ludicrous URLs consisting of various odd characters 
and pointers all over the place should be punished. Many of the 
ridiculous URLs are hundreds of characters long, and many cannot 
be copied. Many won't work when copied, since they must evolve 
from a specific page.   

...Eliminate all pop-open windows  

A horrible recent trend in online advertising is annoying pop-up 
windows in the form of minibrowsers. Many of these spawn other 
windows if they are closed. This trend began with porn sites, and 
now other commercial enterprises think it's a good thing. If you want 
to drive business away, then keep it up.   

...Kill Flash advertisements  

I also don't like the excessive amount of Flash advertising. Too 
much movement on the page makes it hard to read - like trying to 
read a screen with a fly crawling on it. The new advertising models 
simply do not work. The Flash idea came about because there was a 
perceived need to up the ante to get readers' attention. This 
approach gets negative attention.   

...End forward jumps on Web sites  

A typical example of a forward jump is the home page that acts as a 
quick hello. It automatically loads a real home page. First, you get a 
big "Welcome to the site!" page that loads very fast, and then you 
jump to another page. I suppose this makes you think you're visiting 
a responsive site, but the problem is that you can't Back-Arrow out 
of the site. If I go to Google to do a search, then click on one such 
page, I can't get back to Google unless I do predictive clicking - 
clicking the Back Arrow key numerous times, hoping that I don't 
overshoot.   

...Adopt a self-cataloging system  

All informational Web sites should be self-cataloging. You should be 
able to browse by subject the same way you can browse a library 
bookshelf. Current search engine technology does not allow this, 
despite the bogus and vague "More Pages Like This" link, which 
never works anyway. One key to making this work would be to allow 
one tag per site. You decide what your site is about and code it 
appropriately for cataloging. Multiple tags would not be allowed, 
thus preventing sites from being able to sucker someone into 
visiting.   

...Eliminate the plug-in  

It would be ideal to eliminate all plug-ins. But this will never happen. 
In the meantime, a simple program that can show you all your plug-
ins, with their associated files and DLLs, could work. And having the 
ability to remove them would also be nice. I have a couple of plug-
ins I'd like to get rid of without digging all over for them.   

...Stop the music  

Having a Web site load a MIDI or WAV file and play it was funny for 
a while, but now the feature must be viewed as a failed experiment. 
Nobody wants computers to begin playing music out of the blue. The 
feature should be eliminated permanently.   

...Create a universal payment mechanism  

When are we going to get a truly universal payment system that will 
let me effortlessly buy a two-page document for a nickel or dime? 
Plan after plan has come and gone. Something has to give, because 
the current system, with competing plans, minimum credit card 
charges, and a lack of true security, is killing the e-commerce 
golden goose.   


Copyright 2001 Ziff Davis Media Inc.  





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