[geoff01]

Last month we listed 50 things being killed by the internet. Now here's a selection of the trends we wish could be consigned to the waste bin - the most annoying things on the web.


1) 'Worse than the Nazis'
"As an [online] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." So states Godwin's Law, the observation first made in 1990 that still stands today. Many online communities counter this moronic rhetorical device by ruling that the first person to make a Hitler comparison loses the argument by default.


2) Lazy activism
Joining a Facebook group is the new going on a march, just substantially less effective. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime did not buckle under the onslaught of green-tinted Twitter avatars.

3) Messages alerting you to messages
Email inboxes are becoming clogged with non-urgent alerts from Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. How long before someone invents an app to alert Twitter and Facebook users when they receive an email, creating a never-ending spiral of needless messages?

4) CAPTCHAs
Only the internet asks its users to prove that they are human. CAPTCHAs, the word recognition puzzles designed to prevent robots from accessing protected websites, may be a necessary evil but even their inventor has said that he regrets their drain on human time. Assuming that each one takes ten seconds to solve, it has been estimated that we waste 150,000 hours a day squinting at distorted letters. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that CAPTCHAs are getting harder, with some effectively indecipherable.

5) Social media gurus
Knowing how to tweet should not be a career in itself.

6) The next big thing(s)
Remember Friends Reunited? Friendster? Faceparty? The shelf life of social networking websites seems to be around two years, forcing members to transplant their internet personas just to keep up to speed with their contacts. This would be easier to stomach if it wasn't so tough to differentiate between next big things and white elephants.

7) Blogs
Not blogs themselves, but the negligence anxieties that come with having one. They just take far too much writing.

8) Pop-up adverts
Websites need to make money and static adverts don't bring in enough revenue. But that knowledge doesn't make invasive pop-ups - particularly those that hide their close buttons - any less annoying.

9) The bedroom invasion
First it was in the living room, then the bedroom and now - thanks to wi-fi and laptops - the internet is in your bed.

10) Amazon pigeonholing
Years after purchasing a book about self harm for university research, I still receive emails recommending titles related to suicide and depression. Some straight men with eclectic tastes in fiction have complained that Amazon appears to have convinced itself that they are gay.

11) YouTube speech bubbles
If there's one thing we've learned in the four year history of YouTube, it's that literacy cannot be presumed. So while the "annotations" feature launched last year should allow filmmakers to produce richer videos, in practice it has led to clips being marred by intrusive gibberish. The equivalent of an excitable child forcing his parents to sit through his favourite cartoon: "Dad, did you see that bit? Did you see it? It was funny, huh? Oh Dad, you weren't paying attention."

12) Rickrolling
Hugely over this, now.

13) Everything has been done before
Had an idea? Well someone in San Jose had it last year, got VC-funding and has already launched Beta testing. Presumably this must also have happened before the internet, but in those days you could remain in happy ignorance.

14) Comment pedantry
If the US Constitution had been published online, you can be sure that the first comments would have picked apart the spelling mistakes, and blamed the slapdash attitude of Adams, Jefferson et al for undermining the prospects of the nation. Some commenters seem blinded to the essence of online offerings by their irresistible urge to mark.

15) It's always on
If we all agreed to shut down the internet for a few hours a week - perhaps on Sunday evenings - long-suffering parents and grand-parents might get a few more phone calls.

16) MySpace and Bebo
Far too hard on the eyes. Proof, if it were needed, that graphic design should be considered a profession.

17) Companies wanting us to 'join the conversation'
A direct result of the ascendancy of No 5 is the insufferable chattiness of previously faceless corporations. But a social media presence is no alternative to swift, helpful customer service.

18) Corporate email signatures
Would anyone have assumed that the jottings of a junior account executive reflected the views of an entire multinational company, or that her winking emoticon sign-off was legally binding?

19) Websites that are too wide for the browser
A less common problem these days, as web design and browsers become more sophisticated.

20) Cross-platform conversations
A very modern communication habit and one for which an etiquette has yet to emerge. If you are speaking to the same person over email, Facebook, MSN Messenger and SMS, is it acceptable to "cross the streams" and discuss work topics on Facebook, or continue an email thread on SMS? Very confusing.

See the other 30 here