{"id":1142,"date":"2008-05-28T16:53:39","date_gmt":"2008-05-28T21:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2008-05-28T16:53:39","modified_gmt":"2008-05-28T21:53:39","slug":"breaking-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/05\/28\/breaking-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I’ve found more than a few websites using a very annoying pop-up preview thing<\/a> – you’ve probably seen it yourself, popping up when you mouse over a link on a web page. It’s from some place called “Snap,” and it shows you a preview of the page the link leads to – I guess so you can… see it before you see it?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the point. In this day and age – with tabbed browsing available from all the major web browsers, there’s just no need for a “preview” of a link. Just open the link in a new tab!<\/strong> Seriously!<\/p>\n

Considering how much people hate other kinds of “pop-ups,” it’s surprising that they’d put up with these kind. And even more confusing is why website authors themselves would include the functionality in the first place. Maybe they just think it looks “cool?”<\/p>\n

Personally, I find it terribly distracting at best<\/em>, and at worst<\/em> I find that it totally breaks the web – it stops you from reading the content behind it, it causes random asynchronous requests from your browser (using AJAX no doubt), and it just slows down the whole experience. If you’ve got a page with more than a few links on it, and you move your mouse over the page, you might be in for quite a surprise as dozens of these little pop-ups try and spring to life, like monsters born from the dust of some evil pixie or something. Never mind that the preview is too small to really make a difference anyway. The most you can hope for is to see whether the linked page uses a particular color scheme. It’s like trying to preview a page by looking at your monitor while seated 20 feet away.<\/p>\n

In short, utterly useless<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I’ve found more than a few websites using a very annoying pop-up preview thing – you’ve probably seen it yourself, popping up when you mouse over a link on a web page. It’s from some place called “Snap,” and it shows you a preview of the page the link leads to – I guess… Continue reading Breaking the Web<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[100,36],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-technology","tag-opinion","tag-web","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-iq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/10\/04\/illusions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":0},"title":"Illusions","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Found some interesting illusions today. This first one will drive you INSANE. The squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray (I checked with Photoshop).","rel":"","context":"In "Pictures"","block_context":{"text":"Pictures","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4679,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2015\/03\/26\/windows-10-technical-preview-thoughts-so-far\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":1},"title":"Windows 10 Technical Preview – Thoughts So Far","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I decided to finally take a look at the technical preview for Windows 10 and give my thoughts on it so far. First off, it was surprisingly easy to get a hold of - unlike past Windows versions, you didn't need to sign up for any special developer program or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/03\/windows-10-login.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/03\/windows-10-login.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/03\/windows-10-login.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/03\/windows-10-login.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/03\/windows-10-login.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1831,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/02\/16\/the-desktop-app-is-still-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":2},"title":"The Desktop App is still King","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Although all the \u201ccool kids\u201d these days seem to be writing web apps, and the word \u201ccloud\u201d has taken on a new meaning that is sure to confuse meteorologists and normal people alike, I still think that desktop apps are very important. Maybe even important enough to deserve a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Internet","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/internet-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":961,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/10\/31\/time-flows-like-a-river-and-history-repeats\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":3},"title":"Time flows like a river\u2026 and history repeats","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It occurred to me recently that Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, and all those sorts of sites are just like GeoCities and Tripod were back in the early days of the web - in other words, filled with awful, horrible, ugly web pages that nobody wants to look at.","rel":"","context":"In "Rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1217,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/19\/web-page-readability-in-a-world-of-lcd-monitors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":4},"title":"Web Page Readability in a world of LCD monitors","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe it's just me, ever since I switched to an LCD monitor, I find it painful to read white text on a black background for any length of time. It used to be the other way around - I suspect it has something to do with the way that an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":409,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/02\/17\/a-web-page-that-sucks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":5},"title":"A Web Page that Sucks","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm so embarrased. I used to live on the border of Northbridge. Oh dear god, there's BLINKING TEXT on the page... my eyes!","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}