Ah, crankiness. Here’s what made me cranky lately.
1. I tried out an EVDO card for the first time. 109 kbs? That’s a far cry from what I was hoping for, Verizon. Your website says “average download speeds of 400-700 kbps capable of reaching up to 2.0Mbps.” Am I just one of the unlucky ones?
2. Gift cards from major retailers with huge web sites, but you can’t use the gift card online.
3. Whatever dude is spamming Amazon’s electronics reviews with “You can get this product, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in this special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: http://top****.biz/amazon”. You can’t seem to click on an SD card or storage card without hitting this guy.
4. Apparent spoofing of Alexa’s Related data. For my site, for example, do you really think that a ton of people are surfing off to a celebrity poker site, or event management/jobs sites? Hmm. Looks like hidden text on one of those sites (http://www.coole.co.uk/) as well.
5. Ajax-y or Javascript mouseover menus that require you to keep your mouse within a ten-pixel horizontal band or you lose the navigation bar.
6. Time-based user interfaces. Ah, so if I press the power off button, it will turn off the screen. If I hold down the power off button, it will turn the phone off but leave the rest of the device on? Every device seems to do this: phones, iPods, cars; heck, my watch does different things if you hold a button for too long. Either the UI makes less sense (press play for a short time to pause; hold down play for a long time to turn off?) or the UI is too slow or fast. In my hotel room in NYC, you had to hold down a button to advance the time. It advanced slowly for a while, then kicked into an uber-fast advance at some random point. I know that it costs money to add buttons to devices, but time-based UIs just suck, in my opinion.
Well, I feel better now. I’m looking for a good pair of wireless headphones. Anybody want to chime in with recommendations, or other annoyances?
Hm, I feel your pain on the time-based interfaces… My phone does that too, and to make things worse: in the built-in browser you can _press_ power-off to go back, _shortly hold_ power-off to quit the browser and go back to the main menu, and _long hold_ power-off to, you know, shut down the phone.
Really, really thoughtfull. I really love being able to shut down my phone from within the browser in just one, easy keypress.
Matt, i tell you what really sucks is that there is some corruption going on in blogger.com that allows one operation to reregister deleted blogs.
This is a inside job
Have a look at this profile quick before it disappears.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/17737027
First of all it has 50 blogs to 1 account
Secondly you will find all these blogs are recently deleted blogs all with at least a pr of 4
I have found this one man operation already with over 250 expired blogs which i will post on caughtspamming.blogspot.com shortly.Some have been banned but some TOS complaints go unansered to blogger.
I would appreciate if you could investigate how this happens.
I have sprint EVDO and see pretty good throughput but latency is pretty weak (sometimes 500ms pings)
I got in at a really good time with Sprint at 39.95 a month for unlimited data… Also they threw in the merlin card for no charge.
Things that annoy me are places like blogger or blogspot or similar that are jammed full of splogs and clogs getting nice pushes in SERPs because of the domains they are on and misleading cross linking schemes between the splogs. It is truly frustrating to have to compete search terms with these guys.
I also personally get very frustrated with electronic stores that are always trying to sell me an extended warrantee. Heck, I actually had a radio shack try to sell me one on a rechargable battery that cost $5 to buy. I laughed at the guy in the face for that piece of stupidity.
Oh yeah, I am still not real pleased about third level domain spammers that seem to get SERP benefits from the root domain. Why is this?
Alex
“Categories” lists that aren’t alphabetized.
Just joking.
True annoyance.
Comments on blogs which don’t allow you to preview. I rarely get my comment right on the first try.
HaHa, I got that feedback at SES NYC as well. I’ll be passing that on to the blogger team. Shoemoney, you’re clearly a better negotiator than I am. 😉
Got another one. Blogs with open threads. They turn into nothing but chat rooms.
Things that suck…
I’ve been working hard to get a business plan finished for a web startup, staring at a screen for 14 hours a day, reading a blog posting now and then to spice things up a bit. Two nights in a row now I’ve dreamt about hanging out with Matt Cutts, walking around outside and talking SEO. Creepy!
Get out of my brain, Matt!
7. The mandatory mechanical messages most cell phone providers tack on to the end of your greeting that you cannot control: “Press 1 to leave a message. If you would like to leave a callback number press #, or for more options press 1, or if you’re annoyed or confused, just hang up on the computer voice without buying”.
Is a cable ISP available in your area? We’re getting 5Mbps from TimeWarner, plus digital phone. Actually received a snail mail letter offering — free of charge — the upgrade to that download rate and a new modem. We shot down to the local TW store that day.
Wireless Headphones – I just picked up a new laptop HP laptop (Pavilion dv8130) 2 weeks ago that had a built-in bluetooth – and I bought a pair of Motorola HT820 wireless headphones – so now I can listen to music / NPR / Webmaster radio programs without having to pause, miss or carry my laptop with me to continue listening to whatever – they seem to have a range of about 100 ft, but it might be better in homes that aren’t as thickwalled as mine.
The interface is a little weird to get used to – the on/off and “connect to bluetooth device” button are one and the same – so sometimes I don’t really turn it off. But its charge is supposed to last 15 hrs, so its not too bad. The only other disadvantage is perhaps that I’ve become very anti-social since getting them. 😉
Hilton must have received a bulk discount on those alarm clocks! I was staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, five blocks away from the conference, and had the same annoying experience.
“But (retailer), I’m Matt Cutts, Google Engineer. If you’re really nice to me, and give me a decent deal, I’ll review XXX product in my blog and give you some link and customer love in return.”
And if that doesn’t work, just hoof ’em one. 🙂
One more thing:
On that Alexa data, the data in general seems to be screwed up lately. But, since I thought this was just me until now, I feel better now.
Matt this could be for real and not spoofing of anything.
4. Apparent spoofing of Alexa’s Related data. For my site, for example, do you really think that a ton of people are surfing off to a celebrity poker site, or event management/jobs sites? Hmm. Looks like hidden text on one of those sites (http://www.coole.co.uk/) as well.
After all mostly webmasters and the like visit here, need I say anymore 😉
I ‘d help them out but I don’t run any browser add ons so alexa will never see where I go. Unless you are mining your site with various spy beacons.
DO NOT get the bluetooth wireless headphones made by Logitech. They originally put these out for the 3rd/4th gen iPods and then allowed HP to release them under teh HP brand. There’s also a new line for any type MP3/audio player.
My Beef? After about 30 minutes, they heat up and your ears feel like they are on fire. I purchased the iPod version and non-iPod version of these with the same result. Sorry Logitech, are you ears burning? Mine were.
Hey another thing that bugs me is the plethora of expired mainstream domains used to promote pron.As if you didn’t know.
Search google for vancouver parks.
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial_s&hl=en&q=greater+vancouver+parks&btnG=Google+Search
Now check the code of the no#1 result http://www.greatervancouverparks.com/
Also
christopherruncampground.com/ looks a lovely family freindly design.
Now check the source code
Here is some more from the same stable.
http://www.fit-ed.org
http://www.wheretodoresearch.com
http://www.lewisenv.com
http://www.realsites.com/vgproperties
http://www.vonhagen.org
http://www.pettersonandassociates.com
manchesterstopthewar.org
http://www.thefloridaroom.org/frame.htm
actually i see the sdult links has now been moved from the code, though Yahoo still have it cached http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigtitsroundasses.com%2Ft1%2Fpps%3Dyounfp%2F&sm=Yahoo%21+Search&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&u=www.worldsurface.com/browse/clickthrough.asp%3Floginid%3D7418&d=Lr3wNW1aMLEA&icp=1&.intl=us
I cannot agree with you more. When I came to USA and my first hand at the car – It took a loong while for me to figure out how to set the radio station for one of the buttons. It required me to keep it pressed for sometime to set it!
-Nirav
HaHa, I’ve already heard back from a Blogger person, by the way. Adam Senour, I try not to go in that direction. 🙂
one word… MySpace.com
Biggest annoyance Ever.
Required to have an account to see stuff… annoying obtrusive ads everywhere, pink text on black backgrounds, horizontal scrolling on the page.
Heck, if myspace pages had a guestbook and an animated under construction gif, it’d be 1994 all over again.
Why do people still use this site again? It’s got all of my favorite annoyances built in.
I’m annoyed that some of my pages don’t validate to XHTML anymore, and that it is already hotting the 80s in Phoenix.
Sorry to hear your day has been so bad Matt, but welcome to the world of webmasters and site owners. I know that you and maybe some of the other Google engineers get tired of hearing some of us low life webmasters/site owners complain about our competitors, but it stinks to work so hard on something and see others manipulate the system without fear of recourse.
I am guilty myself as you might know voicing some of my complaints as well here. However when you see sites that you personally Matt brought up here on your blog get penalized for the same things some of us are reporting and nothing happens, its dishearting, and we can only preceive because it seems like sour grapes, we are just whining.
I hope tomorrow is better for you 🙂
Matt,
Maybe I misunderstand your “spoofing” comment on Alexa, but this could be legit.
As I’m sure you know, Alexa data is obtained from those folks that download/install/use their toolbar. I’d bet you a $100 that SEO-types are dis-proportionally represented … so no surprise that there is some skewing of the data which (my take) is indicated by your pretty darn good Alexa ranking – currently 2,679 (lower is better) compared to say 6,412 for the http://www.rockymountainnews.com – prominent newspaper here in Colorado.
Then again, maybe you DO have more readers or (who coined the term) Cuttletts?!? 😉
Similarly, the “People who visit [your] page also visit:” list was entertaining and my guess is that is not spoofed, but a legit list of sites that your SEO fans (who use the Alexa toolbar) also visit and/or (probably) manage.
I’m no a spammer sword wielding ninja like you, but heck, I’ll double that bet above that at least 4 or the 7 sites listed are spam havens based simply on looking at your Alexa page and their domain names – i.e. without even visiting the sites … and I’m not including the “coole” example that you poked into.
alek
P.S. You may be alluding to folks using automated means to simulate Alexa queries to these target sites in an attempt to bump their Alexa rankings and make them seem more popular/desireable. Guess what – PageRank isn’t the only “currency” in town!
Once again, this would probably be SEO-types doing this type of stuff, so yea, no surprise they are frequent readers of your blog too.
“I tried out an EVDO card for the first time. 109 kbs? That’s a far cry from what I was hoping for, Verizon. Your website says “average download speeds of 400-700 kbps capable of reaching up to 2.0Mbps.” Am I just one of the unlucky ones?”
Matt, it depends on how far away you are from the nearest cell site with an EVDO overlay. At my home, 100k is normal, in my office I get 600k.
On the headphones issue:
DON’T buy the mid range sony ones. The transmitter is poor and I get loadsa high freq hiss. Also When I’m irong shirts for the week, I have to move the transmitter away as whenever I get too close I lose the music and get more hiss.
Sony Headphones from Amazon
and i just hate this this “branding buttons” at some cellphones with modified fimware. a single useless button which only brings up your providers wap site, and there is nothing more than this stupid “buy ringtones”, “buy wallpapers” and stuff like this on. and you always have this page open when you take the phone out off your pocket and forgot to turn on the keylock…
Wireless Headphones
Call me a mean old sod, but our local Chinese shop here in Spain sells cracking good wireless headphones for around $20.
I bought a set because they were so cheap, and never looked back. You are better off using mains for the transmitter (the batteries run down too quickly otherwise). But the phones themselves are fine, good range throughout the house, and rechargeable batteries last ages.
Perhaps if you were listening to high quality music something more expensive may be required, but for me, these cheapo jobs are remarkably good.
I hate people driving in front of you at 50 mph who suddenly decide their windshield is dirty and they spray their windshield wiper fluid all over your car. The next person that does this to me is getting rammed.
Hey Matt,
I’m a product manager for an online retail site. We’ve got some Scosche Bluetooth headphones w/ transmitter. Drop me a line and I’ll cut you a (significant) deal on them. The product page is here.
already gone the yellow on white?
Looks harmless to me, this is better stuff! = three in one: keyword-stuffing, others content, hidden small font,
Also watch the names at the end of the keyword tag.
sorry my mistake this
Pop-ups, disabling the back button – annoying flash ads and anyone -anyone who takes advantage of kids online.
On wireless headphones:
I couldn’t find any Bluetooth headphones when I was shopping for mine about a year ago, but I’ve been happy with the Sennheiser HDR-85 I wound up with. Sennheiser’s lower-priced models might work as well in terms of sound quality, but the 85s enclose your ears — much better for shutting out surrounding noise. I also like that there are three “channels” because someone else in my department also has Sennheisers. We can use different channels to keep our streams separate, or switch over and see what the other guy’s listening to.
I traveled alot last year with an EVDO card from Verizon, I have to agree most of the time it was pretty pathetic speeds. The only times it seemed fast was at the airport’s. Which was ok since I spent most of my time waiting for my next flight.
Hi Matt,
I bought the Bose after going through a couple different pair (ie. Radio Shack, Yamaha). I sit at the computer all day, and play drums all night and they work excellant in both situations.
A little pricey but worth the extra money and the time you save going my route.
ps. You going to the WMW in Boston next month?
Talking about navigation bar mouseovers…just try to use GoDaddy. You loose the stupid dropdown menus nearly every time you move your mouse down to choose one of them, and end up clicking on one of the links on the page instead. In general, their interface is really nasty.
Here’s what I think sucks:
Trying very, very hard to get a start making a living on content sites – quality, original content – only to have the AdSense earnings cut in half by Smart Pricing.
I wonder if maybe content sites [not shopping sites] should be delivered ads that relate to more content and information instead of opportunities for purchasing. Sometimes conversion should not be measured in the sale of a product, but in the delivery of a visitor to more, relevant information. Isn’t that the underlying principal of Google anyway?
___________________________
That aside keep up the good work and any chance on getting a consolidated webmaster interface [AdWords, AdSense, Sitemaps, Analytics, etc] from you guys soon?
Matt, I use the Sony RF915 wireless headphones. The headphones charge on the dock/transmitter base, and feel like a pair of comfy earmuffs with big foam rubber pads.
I bought it as a refurb for about $40, so I’m not sure if this particular model is still available … but I’m sure Sony still makes similar models.
Hi Matt,
Here is a good report on Wireless Headphones. Basically says the Pioneer SE-DIR800C are the best.
Of course that displeases you. If Google focuses more on spam, you end up on the outside looking in. (Not that I’m implying anything there. 🙂 )
Hey Matt, I think I may have the solution for your EVDO situation, since I just had this with a client.
As stupid as this sounds, cancel your subscription with Verizon and get a card with a different provider that can verify EVDO coverage by postal code.
I just had this here in Canada. My client cancelled with Bell and went with Telus because of the network. It went from 112 Kbps to 1 Mbps with nothing other than a new network.
So that may help.
Sorry…for you Yanks out there, postal code = zip code. My bad.
One more for the pissed off at pile:
Companies that stick “Christian” in front of an unrelated service to try and attract the Jesus-types.
Christian web hosting immediately comes to mind. It’s web hosting, for crying out loud. I’m pretty sure that the disciples don’t have a preferred hosting company or server platform…unless there’s something that allowed Noah to carve out the 10 commandments in a fully redundant manner and was robust and scaleable.
(Note: I’m actually an atheist. I just couldn’t figure out a better way to be sarcastic.)
Matt!!!!! DONT USE VERIZON THEY SUCK!
Trust me…..I used to be a tech support agent for verizon dsl and I can tell you 100% I wouldn’t use their services if they gave them to me!
-steve
P.S. cheer up
Back again, just a sucker for “what sucks” invites.
1. Firstly, it sucks lying awake (it’s 0100 here in Oz) wanting to gripe in this post.
2. And what really sucks is furshlugginer cell phones with ten buttons doing the job THREE did on my blessed ol’ Nokia 3210.
I know, I know, it’s been done to death, but it’s my turn: PHONE GUYS, I just want a phone that p-h-o-n-e-s other people, let alone point the world’s lowest def. CCD through the world’s cheapest plastic lens.
I don’t want my phone to be a paperless office any more than I want to run my business from the boot of my car.
The Radio Shack kids bolt when they see me in for my weekly technofix ’cause they just know I’m gonna wave the 3210 at them and sneer “Got any real phones for sale?”
Mmmm, furshlugginer, there’s a word I haven’t seen in decades.
This is old, but after a recent conversation with a co-worker, it’s bugging me again:
At SES, I heard a gagale of online bloggers complainaing about the speed of the wifi connection in the wifi lounge. “Too slow”, “This is crap”, etc.
I wasn’t one of them – I travel sans laptop and limit my conference experience to pen and paper notetaking, call me crazy.
So, while I didn’t have to deal with slow connectivity, I was dealing with other gripes – which I’ll get to in a sec.
First, those wifi-whiners – what the heck did you expect from only one or two pipes coming into the area? At one point there had to be over 100 people IN the lounge itself – nevermind those just outside the door, etc.
Geez, if I had 100 other houses connected to my DSL at home, I’d expect it to be slow…
Now, my only gripe (mentioned in my survey) – need more computers for accessing e-mail set up in the reg area. Not a really big deal, but it’d be nice.
I realize this is way late in this thread, and potentially OT, but let me try to complete the circle by saying, these are the things which make me cranky – when folks overlook the details.
…and, Matt, if you read this, I still have that review ready of Spamalot for you. Drop me a note if you want a copy. searchgeek at gmail will find me.
Duane
Matt,
Time based interfaces rule! Don’t you remember how easy it was when your dad bought you a casio watch in the 80’s with six buttons and some of them when held down for a period of time would do different things? OK, time based UI can suck.
But if you are working with a limited set of buttons and if you do it well, it can be very intuitive.
I think Alexa have to find a way to remove these sites their ranking index.
Browser Hjacks sites get all site ranking on Alexa. Working so hard but getting a few points cause of this illegal actions.Whar a bad situation..
I think so Tufan. Alexa have to find a way to remove these sites their ranking index.
Hi, if you are still looking for the Wireless Headphones I would recommend the Sennheiser RS-120. I love them, the range isn’t great though.
Have you bought anything yet?
Just got a pair of Motorola Bluetooth HT820’s yesterday, and after spending an hour on the phone with some guy from Inida (Motorola’s service center). It was determined the reason that I wasn’t getting sound is because I have to manually go into control panel and switch the output audio device manually to Bluetooth to hear anything…more of a pain that I was hoping for, but the sound quality is, nice! 14 hours of play time on 1 charge is pretty decent too!