Imagine this – you are quietly surfing the web on the computer in your bedroom in the early morning while your spouse slumbers peacefully in bed nearby. Suddenly and unexpectedly music starts blaring from the speakers! Ahhh! You try to find the volume control as quickly as possible, but it is too late. “What are you doing?” comes the grumble from the bed. Yup, you have been nailed by a website with auto-play music.
Or you are happily surfing away on your lunch hour at work, because you certainly wouldn’t do it during normal work hours, when all of a sudden your computer springs to life and starts screaming, screeching, and maybe even rapping. All eyes turn towards you. There is no happiness in cubicle land today, for you have broken the silence as surely as if you had let one fly after dining at Taco Bell. But no, all you did was visit a blog where someone has a music video with auto-play enabled.
Now trust me, I love music as much or more than the next person. And I love watching funny videos on-line or even stupid ones. Hey, I even watch music videos on-line. But the nice thing about the web is that it I can use it, surf it, or ignore it on my schedule. Please let the sounds be the same way. If I want to hear the music you have on your site or watch the video demonstration you created to pump up your “I want to make a million on the Internet” business site, then I will click Play. Otherwise, please leave it off. What is the end result if you don’t? The result is that I, and lots of others like me, will just stop visiting your site. Rough yes, but it is the truth. The best you can hope for is that we will turn of the volume before we get to your site, so what is the point anyway?
Additionally, auto-play just chews up bandwidth. And that is really annoying when you are trying to multiple things at once. Just sucks away the traffic flow.
Maybe it is just me, but I find this really annoying. Am I wrong? Am I missing something here?
