It's not that these pages are so butt-ugly, though "aesthetics" and "Internet design" are words that rarely belong in the same sentence. Rather, it's the disdain for user friendliness that often gets expressed by a raised middle finger extended in the general direction of the average computer user.
Specifically, I'm talking about the annoying trend toward locking surfers inside a Web site once they arrive. It's a popular practice among porn-site operators, who then proceed to serve up as many windows as the user's computer can handle -- the rationale being that once you've hooked 'em, hook 'em but good.
And for some inane reason, several mainstream Web operators have borrowed this idea from the flesh merchants: Once you get onto a page, you can never get out. And now thanks to the best efforts of certain company code-heads, your trusty "back" button becomes, in certain circumstances, as useful as an appendix.
You can still escape the clutches of some of the offending sites -- that is, if you're good enough. But you'll need to spend a ridiculous amount of time figuring out the location of any trapdoors. Some sites are more difficult to escape depending on which browser you use. If you're stymied, the only other option is to shut down and reboot the browser.
Computing should be easy, and if it takes more than two clicks of your "back" button to get out of a Web site, that's too many. The surprise is that some very reputable companies are on the laundry list of companies rigging their Internet pages. You can find the full list at Top9.com, a site operated by Internet directory Top9.com, which is tagging the offenders with different-colored padlocks to designate the extent of the lock-in.
"We were wondering whether everyone at these companies is fully aware of what's going on," said Terry Redding, a manager with Top9.com. "Does the president of Home Depot know their site locks people in? Maybe it's a marketing technique, but my sense is that people are more annoyed than anything and that this will backfire."
I'll drink to that. It's only a matter of time before the market watchers who tabulate Web statistics make a stink about the dishonesty of increasing a site's pages per viewer by resorting to this nonsense.
Not surprisingly, the Einsteins who operate the offending Web sites aren't straining at the bit to talk with yours truly about the user benefits of their handicraft. I'm still waiting for several PR folks -- and you know who you are, boys and girls -- to haul their important clients out of all-day meetings and get back to me.
Somehow, I don't think my phone is going to ring off the hook today.
