Whilst updating some of my lenses today I noticed that a couple of them where showing glossy adverts with audio. Now I have no complaint about ads on Squidoo generally, obviously that is what pays for everything and the revenue is also shared with lensmasters and charities. What I did find a bit annoying was the way that the UK chef Gary Rhodes kept repeating how he could show me how to cook with Flora every few seconds. I could not see any way of stopping or muting the audio, so if I had been a surfing visitor, I think I would have very quickly moved on somewhere else to get away from the noise (unless I really wanted some cooking with Flora instructions, of course).
My view is that automatically repeating audio of this nature is more likely to prevent people reading my lens than encourage them. I am not suggesting that these type of adverts should be stopped, but I think it would be much more user friendly to have a simple way of muting the sound within the lens, if that is technically possible.
I would be interested to know if any fellow lensmasters share my views on this topic.
Tags: Squidoo, squidoo adverts
If I want to hear an advertisement — or any audio, for that matter, I want to be able to make that choice myself — always. I don’t like having to listen when I wasn’t planning to listen. If it prevents me from enjoying a site, it must prevents others as well. I am more than with you on this one.
Ugh, haven’t encountered those yet but I’m with you; at a minimum people need the option of turning them off.
That would definitely be annoying and I’d leave the page. That’s one of the things I hate about some of myspace’s pages. Even though I have the music feature turned off, it’ll still play. Annoying.