I'm not sure exactly why, but something about all the little "Powered by..."
stickers and web banners I see all over the place really annoys me. I can't decide if it's the
arrogance of a company that thinks I really care about their name more than whether their product in fact works or not (but then again some people do, I'm just not
one of them).
Maybe it's the general air of clutter it projects: becasuse once you have "Intel Inside", then you end up with "EnergyStar Compliant", then "Designed for Windows 95", then "Non-Toxic - Safe for Use With Pets". And that's just the mouse.
Maybe it's the fact that America is one of the most advertising-bombarded places on Earth, and just once, just one time I'd like to buy something that isn't being used as a sample-size billboard. I'm just waiting for Dell or Compaq or Apple to start selling ad space on their cases. Look what happened with the web.
The flip side is that every bad idea needs its day before people realize how screwy it is. Banner ads are dying the well-deserved death I predicted for them 3 years ago. Click-through rates are dropping and I couldn't be happier. Every bad idea also comes back with a new name, so I'm not holding my breath quite yet. But hopefully once the stickers (both physical and virtual) are dead they'll stay dead.
(And a quick note to all you "This site best viewed with..." so-called web designers: learn HTML and quit with the GUI editors already, OK???)