Noisy Flash

March 27, 2005 · Comments

From [distant, early morning:](http://www.lisajill.net/index.php/weblog/comments/disabling-flash/)

>The thing here is this: sound may add a lot to a page, especially one about say … music, or sound effects. But it should always be requested by the user. God forbid I was at work, doing technical support and had to go to a site to help support it and it started blasting music and pissing off my co-workers? Yes, this has happened. Yes, it was work-related browsing. Yes, I wanted to strangle the person who designed the site.

I so agree with Lisa, here. Flash can be a very good thing, especially when you’re designing closets (see [previous](http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/relocating/diy_closets.php) entry). But more often than not, it’s unnecessary eye-candy that particularly in Firefox, can grind browsing to a halt. That’s why I love the [Flashblock](http://flashblock.mozdev.org/) extension. Instead of Flash, you get a little icon that you can click on. If it’s a menu or something important, you can get the Flash, otherwise it’s ignored. I’ve found that with Flashblock, I don’t need any other ad blockers since it’s only Flash ads that annoy me.

Flashblock

And nothing on the web is more annoying to me than websites that make noise I didn’t ask for. I think developers should assume that all visitors are surfing from their cubicles or while the baby is napping unless the visitor says otherwise. Present the user with the option for audio with the default setting at “mute.” Please. I know I can mute my computer but why should I have to do that? I want to hear error feedback or listen to iTunes without interference from websites that I didn’t ask for. Blocking Flash and allowing it on a case-by-case basis seems to eliminate a lot (but not all) of the problem for me.

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