slideshow websites annoying

• View on Facebook Page (Opens in a new tab)
• View our Twitter Page (Opens in a new tab)
• View our Instagram Page (Opens in a new tab)
• View our Youtube Page (Opens in a new tab)

Top 10 Browser Extensions that Eliminate Web Annoyances

The web is rife with annoyances. Pop-over ads when you visit a page that you have to dismiss, sites that auto-play audio even in background tabs, pages that reload and take all the text you entered with it, they all suck. Here are some browser add-ons that make the web a better place for everyone.

10. Behind the Overlay (Chrome/Firefox)

You know those web sites where you visit, start reading an article, and then suddenly you get a pop over asking you to signup for a newsletter or something, and the only way to dismiss is to click “no thanks, [insert demeaning thing here]?” Yeah, I hate those too, and Behind the Overlay for Chrome and for Firefox banishes them for good.

We covered it a while ago , and it still works like a charm, whether that pop-over display is one of those annoying “yes, that’s great/no, I hate nice things” ads, or any other pop-over, like the kind begging you to sign up or sign in.

9. Page One (Chrome/Safari) and Re-Pagination (Firefox)

Thankfully, multi-page slideshows are far less common these days around the web than they used to be, but many sites still rely on them to stretch one article into a dozen or more actual clicks and page views. It’s annoying and slow reading, but you don’t have to suffer through it . Chrome and Safari users can install Page One , which pulls all of those slideshow pieces together and displays them on the same page, and Firefox users can use Re-Pagination , which does the same thing with a right-click.

If you don’t want to install anything at all though, you can always use the “printer friendly” version of a page or your browser’s “reading mode” to get everything without having to click a dozen times, or send it to Pocket or another read-it-later service, which usually strips out the cruft anyway.

8. Lazarus (Chrome/Firefox)

Lazarus has been around for a long, long time , but the sheer amount of information it’s saved for me warrants a place on this list, and if you’ve been using it for nearly as long, you know it’s probably saved you a ton of headache too, maybe because of forms you filled out, tried to submit, and that a page timed out on, or emptied all of your text boxes because you didn’t format a required field a certain way.

Those kinds of annoyances are Lazarus’ prime target, and ending them forever is a quick install from the Chrome Web Store or, if you’re a Firefox user, from Mozilla Add-Ons . It’s saved my butt more than once, and since I’ve seen some complaints that the add-on doesn’t work well in Chrome anymore, consider TIRE (Text Input Recover Extension) if you need an alternative.

7. Magic Actions (Chrome/Firefox/Opera)

YouTube is full of entertaining videos, but it’s certainly one of the most annoying web sites. From abysmal commenters to annoying (but easily disabled) overlays and random resolutions, it can be a pain to get everything the way you want it—and then one change may undo your preferences on another system. Magic Actions fixes all of that.

In addition to making sure any videos that can play in HD (or better yet, 4K) do so, Magic Actions also suppresses ads ( which you may or may not want to do ), kills YouTube comment sections, lets you control the volume with your mousewheel, and adds a cinema mode that cuts the cruft and lets you focus on the video you’re watching. All in all, it gives you a YouTube experience that’s more like a media player than a video portal. Plus, it’s one of our favorite Chrome extensions in general , even though it’s also available for Firefox and Opera.

6. WikiWand (Chrome/Firefox/Safari)

Wikipedia is probably one of the web’s most useful sites in general, but it also comes with its share of annoyances. The pages load quickly, but they can be often difficult to navigate, have tons of sections, and could use a fresher, cleaner look. Wikipedia has played with redesigns in the past, but WikiWand , an add-on for Chrome, for Firefox, and for Safari (and also available for mobile devices,) completely transforms each Wikipedia page into a more pleasant reading experience.

The add-on moves the table of contents to a sidebar where you can get to it quickly while you read, makes the font easier to read, adds hover-to-preview on links and images, and more. If you like the look but want something a little less drastic, try out previously mentioned WikiTweaks , which gives you a little more control .

5. Silent Site Sound Blocker (Chrome)

We just mentioned this Chrome add-on , but Silent Site Sound Blocker handles one of my biggest pet peeves about many web sites—as soon as you load them, they try to puff up video views and reach by auto-playing a random video somewhere in a tiny corner of their site. It’s irritating, especially when you have multiple tabs open and no idea where on the page the video is actually playing.

Silent Site Sound Blocker automatically mutes tabs that aren’t your focus tab, and even then, uses a whitelisting system to make sure the only tabs that play audio at all are the ones you approve. You even have the ability to approve a site to play audio once, but then ask again, or block it once and then ask again next time you visit. Of course, you can blacklist sites as well, so they never play audio ever. If you want an alternative, check out previously mentioned Smart Tab Mute , available for Chrome and Firefox .

4. Imagus (Chrome/Firefox)

Tiny thumbnails that don’t open to large images—or worse, only open to large images in the same page or open links instead of larger views—are annoying, and previously mentioned Imagus (available for Chrome and Firefox ) fixes them. Instead, just hover your mouse over an image you want to see in a larger view, and it’ll pop up, nice and big so you can inspect it.

We used to recommend Hover Zoom for things like this, but ever since a ton of useful Chrome extensions went to the dark side , we can’t anymore, and Imagus is a suitable replacement.

3. Pocket (Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Opera/Edge)

Pocket is useful for a lot of things, and while it’s strictly a “read it later” service that lets you save articles for offline reading whenever you have time to get around to them. It’s great, and there are tons of pro tips to get the most from it , but it’s also a great way to eliminate almost all of the annoyances of the traditional web experience. Plus, it’s available for virtually any web browser .

For example, you probably already know that by saving an article to pocket, you can pull paginated, slideshow articles into one long, easily readable page . You also strip out ads and other bloat that’ll slow down your device, or make it difficult to read around them. With the right Pocket tools, you can even get estimates for how long it’ll take to read an article, a tl;dr summary of your articles with bullet points so you can skim first and dive deeper later, and more. All that without having to suffer through auto-play videos, comments, ads, or other annoyances.

2. Social Fixer (Chrome/Firefox/Opera/Safari)

If you install one browser extension that’ll make your Facebook experience leaps and bounds better , it should be Social Fixer . We’ve highlighted it several times , shown you how to use it to clean political posts from Facebook , re-order your news feed with it, always see recent posts and easily find posts you’ve interacted with, hide sponsored posts and pages, filter your news feed so you don’t miss important news, and more. If there’s something about Facebook that annoys you, odds are Social Fixer can handle it.

Of course, if you’re not a fan, or need an alternative, you can also check out F.B. Purity , available for all the same browsers , and another tool we’ve highlighted before .

1. uBlock Origin (Chrome/Firefox)

The fact that this site keeps the engine running thanks to ads doesn’t mean that we don’t know that ads are some of the most annoying parts of the web. Maybe they take over entire pages, or they bump your browser around when you’re trying to read or click. Maybe they auto-play or block the page you’re reading until you can dismiss them. Maybe they just slow down your browser. We feel that pain, and uBlock Origin is our favorite ad blocker for Chrome and Firefox and Opera —not just because it gets the job done easily enough, but because it’s incredibly powerful and customizable .

uBlock Origin lets you control what elements load, which don’t, what ads you see, and what you suppress. You can customize it to your heart’s content, and it’s faster and more lightweight than Adblock Plus or Ghostery, each of which have their own problems with selling ads or partnering with ad companies . If you’d like an alternative, consider Disconnect , a browser extension that doesn’t block ads, but does preserve your privacy by blocking tracking—and the only ads it actively blocks are malvertising, which you want to block anyway .

Title illustration by Fruzsina Kuhári.

Lifehacker’s Weekend Roundup gathers our best guides, explainers, and other posts on a certain subject so you can tackle big projects with ease. For more, check out our Weekend Roundup and Top 10 tags.

How To : Banish Multi-Page Articles & Slideshows Forever

So, you're scanning the internet for some cool articles to read during your lunch break and you come across something pretty interesting—"The 50 Most Incredible Things Every Person with a Brain Should Know." That sounds interesting, so you click, and boom, you are hit with the utterly obnoxious Page 1 of 50 . Really?

This may be one of the most annoying things when browsing the web, and if you're like me, you want to punish all publishers that practice this with endless trips to the DMV. Luckily, you can use a few extensions and add-ons to force all multi-page articles into easily digestible single-page pieces.

#1. One Page (Chrome, Safari)

One Page is an application designed to do exactly what its name alludes to—turn multi-page articles into one-page masterpieces. The app works on a bunch of popular sites like The Atlantic , Slate , Wired , and the Washington Post .

The big drawback here is that One Page only works on the sites that the creator added—check out the list here . You can make a request in the comments section, but it isn't clear how often those are checked.

Also, all multi-page articles will be automatically changed to one-page articles, so if you're looking for toggling options, there aren't any. Simply download the extension, visit one of the listed sites, and enjoy your single page viewing experience.

You can download Page One for Safari and Google Chrome .

#2. Re-Pagination (Firefox)

Re-Pagination is a Firefox add-on that allows for articles with multiple pages to be reloaded as slideshows, one-pagers, or limited pages. So a 10-page article could be split into 3 pages using the Limited Pages option. Re-Pagination has the most options when it comes to choosing how to show a multi-page article.

However, I did notice that when creating a one-page article from a multi-page link, the entire page is reloaded. Meaning page 2 will have the same ads and side blurbs as page 1, versus simply continuing as one cohesive page.

While this isn't the end-all-be-all, it can be confusing to have to scroll through the same exact thing each time before realizing you are on a new page.

#3. Clearly (Chrome)

If you're looking for a cleaner one-page option, make sure to check out Clearly , a Chrome app by Evernote that eliminates banner ads and other distractions to help make reading online better.

Isn't this...

Better than this ?

And, of course, you can view multi-paged articles as one page. Clearly takes a bit of time to load every now and then, but it does provide a single-page view for every site.

These extensions and add-ons will arm you with a few ways to fight back against blatant click-whoring. You can also check to see if there is a Print option on the article, which will give you a preview that can be scrolled as a single page. Also, many sites have the option to "View as a single page," but you might just have to search for that.

Prefer another add-on or extension? Let us know its name and why you like it in the comments below.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for Podcasts, News, Books, and TV, as well as important security improvements and fresh wallpapers. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.5 update.

its amazing tips

These Multiple-Page Articles, and webpages is stressing the heck out of processors, browsers, and bandwidth uses. This is an absolutely ridiculous practice. In the long run it takes longer to build a page. A group needs to be assembled to abolish this terrible practice.

I wonder if all the webpage creators were hired that ADHD or something. It's so scattered and confusing.

Share Your Thoughts

How to : get facebook chat head bubbles on your computer, popup killer : how to bypass website barriers without signing up or completing surveys, how to : get your hacked facebook account back., how to : track who views your facebook profile, how to : 3 ways to find & save old photos in your gmail account, how to : get unlimited trials of popular software (& bypass time-restricted hotspots for free wifi), how to : 6 ways to access members-only websites and forums without giving up your real info, how to : delete all of your inactive or unwanted facebook "friends" at the same time, how to : re-enable copy & paste on annoying sites that block it, canvas fingerprinting : how to stop the web's sneakiest tracking tool in your browser, how to : 5 chrome extensions that make buying from amazon even better, how to : 10 speed hacks that'll make google chrome blazing fast on your computer, how to : download a complete offline version of wikipedia that you can read at anytime, how to : bypass school internet filters to unblock websites, how to : "find & replace" text directly in your web browser, how to : fix stuck or dead pixels on almost any screen, photo forensics : how to check if a picture has been photoshopped or not, how to : grant other people access to your gmail account without sharing your password, how to : automate proper source citation using the apa, mla, or chicago standards for your research papers, how to : get free internet on your laptop from your phone.

• All Features
• All Hot Posts

3 Ways To Remove Slideshow From Any Website

Slideshows are undoubtedly a great way if you want to express information in points. You can use slideshows to present some quantitative or list-based data. You see slides almost everywhere! Your office, your school teaching modules, and the websites your surf, slideshows are everywhere. Slideshows are generally inculcated with short texts, images and videos which build interest in the reader. This applies at schools, colleges, and corporate offices too but that’s definitely not the case with webpages.

What is the need to Remove slides?

You must have stumbled upon a slideshow while surfing a website. What did you feel then? Yes, these slideshows reduce your browsing speed and disturb your smooth reading experience. You spend more effort on clicking that next button and waiting for the page to reload than reading the actual article.

Some content creators and website managers include slideshows on their webpage on purpose. Do you know why? It is a mere trick, Cha! It increases their page views and ad impressions. The slideshows on a webpage are also a tool to increase surf-time of their websites. This helps them to boost their website rank. Every second of a viewer’s presence is beneficial to the publishers. They play with user experiences just for some ad impressions. Just imagine, if a webpage has 20 slides, then we will have to click next button 20 times. Isn’t it a real pain?

This made me hate slides! And now that you are reading this article, I guess you hate slides too. Just think if we too had used slides for this article. Would you be reading this article with such interest and focus? Hell no! We know what our readers look for and we know what you guys want to get rid of too.

Well, don’t you worry because we have got you covered? We have some tips and tricks for you to get rid of those slideshows. These are ways to merge all those slides in a single webpage.

Table of Contents

How to Quickly Remove Slideshow From Any Website

Let’s look at all the methods to remove slideshow from any website one by one:

#1. Deslide

There is an internet app that can save your time and effort by merging all the slides into a single webpage. The Deslide app  de-slides  a slideshow. All you have to do is paste the URL of webpage and rest of the work is done by Deslide. Read along to get the detailed process –

1. First of all, you need to open a new tab in your browser and visit the Deslide web app . You can visit the web app from here .

2. Now you have to copy the URL of the webpage from which you want the slides to be removed.

3. Now enter the copied URL in the available text-area next to Slideshow URL. You also need to choose the display combination. The combination you choose will be applied to the resulting webpage.

4. Finally, click on Deslide button and you are done! Your desired webpage will now be on your screen without any slides.

That was it—a simple few steps formula to get rid of annoying and time-consuming slides. You can also bookmark this web app as to be ready for any war against the slides!

#2. PageZipper

This method is by far the best and the easiest method to throw those bugging slides away. It is just a one time work and you are saved forever. All you need is one click. Page Zipper merges all the pages into a single one. It is a bookmarklet, and you can install it in your browser as an extension by following the given steps:

1. Search PageZipper in your browser search area. Click on the first link that available on the search engine. If you are using Firefox, you can find the extension on the Mozilla Add-ons page or you can use this link .

2. You can also visit this link .

3. Here you just need to drag and drop the Page Zipper link to your bookmark toolbar . See the picture below:

4. Open any webpage with slides and click on the Page Zipper bookmarkle t. It will instantly zip all the next pages into one single page. For example, see the picture below:

See? Just a one-time drag-drop and you are ready to fight with the slideshow any time! PageZipper is an amazing tool if you want to get rid of those slides instantly. As it merges all the next slides on the same page, you just have to scroll down, and the next page will start from the endpoint of the current page.

#3. Printfriendly

Printfriendly is a website that can convert the slideshows of a webpage into a single printable page. It also allows you to export a PDF format of that webpage and you can download it too. Here is how you can do it:

1. C opy the URL of the webpage from which you want the slides to be removed.

2. Visit the Printfriendly or else you can search for it on your browser search engine.

3. Now you need to paste the copied link into the text area and click Preview .

4. Once you click on the Preview button , it’ll show you all the content of every slide into a single page.

5. You can download the pdf version of that page too. Click on PDF option on the menu bar.

6. It will open a dialogue box asking you to download. Click on the Download button , and you’ll have your pdf file downloaded in a moment. Downloading pdf file may be helpful if you are in a hurry and want to read the article later.

Above-mentioned three tricks will surely help you remove slideshow from any website but knowing some alternative options won’t harm you. Let us see an alternative method to Deslide.

The Print Preview – Some websites provide you with the option to print the webpages. That means those webpages can be viewed in printable form. In such a case, you just have to click on the Print button , or you can press CTRL+P . Now, the website will show you a print-preview with all the slides combined into a single page. This option allows you to download PDF too. There is also an option to password protect that PDF file. Note that this method only works for websites that have used left-right links in their slideshows.

As promised, we have helped you get rid of slides from any webpage. Deslide, PageZipper and Printfriendly are the best ways out there to merge those slides into one-page reading. There are several more methods, but some of those require third-party apps installation and some needs set up for every time they are used. If you have any other method similar to the mentioned three or even better, then do comment and let everybody know.

Recommended:

• How To Download Embedded Videos From Websites
• 13 Best PS2 Emulator for Android
• 7 Best Reverse Phone Lookup Services

We hope this article was helpful and you were able to remove Slideshow from any website you want . If you have any queries or suggestions then feel free to reach out using the comment section.

About The Author

Elon Decker

How to Color Code Calendar on Notion

How to Change Duolingo App Icon on Android

How to Use Plinky to Organize Links

How to Reset Tinder Matches

How to Uninstall Valorant from Riot Client

How to Get on a Buzzing Playlist on SoundCloud

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Autoplay Videos Are Not Going Away. Here’s How to Fight Them.

Videos that start without your consent are prominent across the web. Our tech columnist explains how the industry got here and what we can do.

By Brian X. Chen

The web is in a dark place, as I plan to examine in the next several columns. If you need proof, look no further than autoplay videos, the first example.

You’re probably familiar with this horrendous experience: You are perusing a website, and suddenly an annoying voice or unfamiliar music blasts through your speakers.

You wonder, where is this coming from? You scroll up and down the webpage only to realize that a video is playing without your consent. And the noise polluting your ears is coming from an ad preceding a video you had never clicked to watch.

Autoplay videos are all over the web and inside apps. They are prominent in your Facebook and Instagram feeds. Some major news sites embed them into features and news articles.

Nobody seems to likes autoplay videos — not even people I’ve talked to in the ad industry. The indiscreet videos demand your attention while burning through your mobile data plan and sucking up your batteries. Yet they have become a necessary evil for many media publishers trying to survive in the digital age.

“I think we’ve ended up in a really crappy user experience right now with video advertising,” said Dave Morgan, the chief executive of Simulmedia, which works with advertisers on targeted television ads. “Video has been pushed into every user experience whether or not it fits, because it’s a way to make more money.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

design | Mar 19, 2019

Can Local News Websites Shift From Annoying Their Readers to Serving Them?

Getting Readers to Pay Will Require More Attention to User Experience

by Jeannette Hinkle | Jenny_Hinkle

The frustrations of local journalists over the presentation of their work on news websites was summed up recently in a tweet  by British writer Katie Taylor:

Local newspaper journos: Why are we losing so much money? Why don't people read local news? Local newspaper website devs: *adds four pop-ups* *increases page load time to 64 hours* *enables video auto-play* *includes gif adverts in masthead* *changes font to wingdings* — katie (@Shinybiscuit) January 8, 2019

Indeed, too many local news websites look like scrambled piles of puzzle pieces: slow-loading ads, thumbnail links to articles irrelevant to the paper’s readership and pop-ups asking readers to subscribe.

“It’s a mess,” said Rich Gordon , digital innovation director at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. “There are some rules for good user experience that are pretty well established: fast-loading pages, a clear navigation, mobile-friendly design. These are basics.”

User experience problems are not inconsequential annoyances. Each time a reader has to wade through obtrusive ads to get to an article, the news organization’s brand is damaged, said news industry analyst Ken Doctor .

When you see this kind of advertising taking over editorial content, it really lowers the value proposition. I think that’s one of the reasons … it’s been hard to sell digital subscriptions. Ken Doctor, media analyst

“It just pushes people away, but it also sends the readers a message about the value of that site,” Doctor said. “When you see this kind of advertising taking over editorial content, it really lowers the value proposition. I think that’s one of the reasons — only one, but one of the reasons — it’s been hard to sell digital subscriptions.”

Austin Smith , CEO of the user experience consultancy Alley, said most legacy news organizations that are still trying to serve two masters on one page — the advertiser and the reader. Smith said that dual effort is a losing strategy.

“The page layout is optimized for the old thing,” said Smith, former entrepreneur-in-residence for the Lenfest Institute. “It’s optimized for a high number of page views rather than a deep level of engagement with a particular story. A classic example of that is the way that slideshow templates typically work, where you click to the next slide and you get a new ad.”

The ad revenue model isn’t the only thing tanking user experience on local news sites. Emily Goligoski ,  research director for the Membership Puzzle Project and former user experience research lead at the New York Times, said part of the problem is that nationally owned local news sites are beholden to a uniform, one-size-fits-all content management system not designed to accommodate local differences.

“There’s a lot of things that I think off-the-shelf software solutions are great for. Not everyone needs an accounting software that is bespoke, but actually what we’re talking about here is something that’s a little bit different,” Goligoski said. “This idea that we deliver for a particular format and we don’t really break that template very much is deeply concerning to me.”

Anna Derocher  worked at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois for 17 years before she was laid off in May 2017. By the time she left, she had risen to managing editor. “I thought I’d die a journalist,” said Derocher, who now works as a marketing manager at an environmental and engineering firm.

... It just took some time and a lot of communication with the people who make the decisions at the corporate level. It took a couple of years, but eventually we had multiple templates from which to choose. Anna Derocher, former Rockford Register Star Managing Editor

Derocher saw the Register Star transition from Gannett to GateHouse Media, and she helped staff weather waves of changes in companywide content management systems. She said she pushed for GateHouse to adopt a more adaptive content management system and GateHouse indeed made the switch, but it also saddled the relatively large Register Star newsroom with the same template as smaller weeklies.

“[If] the template is built for a newsroom that is smaller and doesn’t publish as much content, the larger properties are limited,” Derocher said. “So it just took some time and a lot of communication with the people who make the decisions at the corporate level. It took a couple of years, but eventually we had multiple templates from which to choose.”

Basic differences in newsrooms, like staff size, should be taken into account when designing a website, but Goligoski said news organizations should go further when building sites for user experience. Local news organizations should tailor their websites to the interests, attitudes, and lifestyles of the specific communities they serve, Goligoski said, adding that those needs can only be identified through routine, responsive audience engagement and research that explores users’ habits.

“We haven’t seen many of these organizations start with ‘What are the needs of my community members?’ and then design from there,” Goligoski said. “[Legacy local news organizations] just haven’t conducted the type of research and audience listening that organizations born today would be required to do to validate that they were serving audience need.”

That research should inform web design and user experience, Alley’s Smith said, but more importantly, it should dictate what types of content a local news organization produces in these staff-challenged times.

“I just don’t believe you need the shiniest website in the world to be indispensable to your audience,” Smith said, adding that his company, which advises news organizations with website design, doesn’t focus on “bells and whistles.”

“We’re after structure and organization that really helps the audience see and feel the value proposition of the news that they’re reading,” Smith said. “User experience can only serve you if you know your audience and you’re delivering the right content to them.”

Transitioning from ad revenue to reader revenue might help news organizations solve a litany of user experience problems. To make that switch, newsrooms need a serious culture change in which they feel energized by the challenges ahead, Smith said. But it’s impossible for a newsroom demoralized by years of layoffs and disinvestment to shift to a startup mindset without assurances that corporate leadership is standing firmly behind the newsrooms’ efforts to spend more time on producing quality content, Smith said.

If there were a sense of, ‘These are the problems we have to solve, management is behind this, the ownership is behind this,’ I don't see why it's not possible. We're just not seeing very much of that. Austin Smith, CEO of Alley

“If there were a sense of, ‘These are the problems we have to solve, management is behind this, the ownership is behind this,’ I don’t see why it’s not possible,” Smith said. “We’re just not seeing very much of that.”

Fostering that energy means thinking about the journalists who will be putting content onto a news site when evaluating website design.  Kelsey Keith , editor-in-chief of Vox’s Curbed , said that when Vox redesigned the companywide content management system for its verticals, journalists were top of mind.

“When the product team at our company is designing the platform itself, they’re actually considering two user groups,” Keith said. “They’re considering the people who actually make, produce, write, publish all the stuff, and then they’re also considering the people who read it.”

Keith framed factoring journalists into user experience as an investment in the public-facing product.

“Our whole ethos at our company is very much that we have a lot of smart people who work here who are passionate about what they’re covering and what they’re writing and we really want that to come through as much as possible to our audience, because they feel an affinity with what we’re publishing,” Keith said. “It’s a very circular sort of thing.”

Mark Jacob of the Medill Local News Initiative contributed to this report.

Article image public domain by Joseph Kenny Meadows ( Old Book Illustrations )

About the author

Jeannette Hinkle

Hinkle, a reporter at the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass., is a Medill master’s graduate. While at Medill, she wrote for the Medill Local News Initiative, highlighting challenges and opportunities in today's local news ecosystem.

Latest Posts

The State of Local News 2023 Vanishing Newspapers, Digital Divides, and Reaching Underserved Communities

The local news crisis in the U.S. is deepening, with profound implications for communities, their inhabitants and ultimately the health of our democracy. Through data, maps, charts, analysis and predictive modeling, this report provides a detailed look at the state of local news today, both the risks that lie ahead and causes for optimism.

Q&A | Jun 18, 2024

After the Raid: Lawsuits, Boosted Circulation, Fallout from the Death of a 98-Year-Old Mother Kansas’s Marion County Record drew national support following a police action with a fatal aftermath, but the small weekly still needs journalists willing to work there

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The Marion County Record in Marion, Kan., a city of fewer than 2,000 people, hit the national spotlight last August when the town’s police raided ...

update | May 30, 2024

Illinois Passes $25 Million in Tax Credits To Boost Local Journalism Legislation package offers ‘pretty significant solutions to a pretty wide variety of challenges’

The Illinois legislature has approved measures that provide $25 million in tax credits over the next five years for local news organizations to hire and ...

research | May 28, 2024

The Medill survey: How the Chicago area gets its news An examination of the public’s interest in and reliance on local news, as well as consumption habits

This text was adapted from the introduction of our report on how Chicago-area residents consume local news. Download a full PDF version of the report. The ...

history | May 28, 2024

News in Chicago: A brief history How Chicago has made journalism history — and isn’t done yet

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Chicago has always been a great news town. Its innovative journalism brought us the first live radio broadcast of a trial in U.S. history. It ...

Q&A | May 16, 2024

A ‘News Pioneer’ Looks Back and Ahead Penny Abernathy tells why the study of local news became her mission, why she chose the term ‘news deserts’ over ‘news vacuums,’ and what signs of hope she sees amid an ailing industry

If Penny Abernathy’s sole accomplishment had been identifying and raising awareness of “news deserts” across the country, her legacy in the local news world would ...

Do you have feedback, observations or suggestions about the local news crisis? Let us know:

Sign up for our mailing list More articles

Get the Reddit app

A community for NBA discussion.

A website to use to get rid of slideshows on sites such as bleacherreport x-post from /r/CFB

I don't really know if I should be posting this here so please let me know if I should remove it. It can be really annoying to view articles that are slideshows so if you happen upon one you can just use http://deslide.clusterfake.net/ to have all those slides on one page. For example you can take http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2071372-ranking-every-state-by-their-college-football-teams and use deslided to turn it into this . I hope this helps if like me you also hate slideshow articles.

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

How TO - Slideshow

Learn how to create a responsive slideshow with CSS and JavaScript.

Slideshow / Carousel

A slideshow is used to cycle through elements:

Try it Yourself »

Create A Slideshow

Step 1) add html:, step 2) add css:.

Style the next and previous buttons, the caption text and the dots:

Advertisement

Step 3) Add JavaScript:

Automatic slideshow.

To display an automatic slideshow, use the following code:

Multiple Slideshows

Tip: Also check out How To - Slideshow Gallery and How To - Lightbox .

COLOR PICKER

Contact Sales

If you want to use W3Schools services as an educational institution, team or enterprise, send us an e-mail: [email protected]

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, send us an e-mail: [email protected]

Top Tutorials

Top references, top examples, get certified.

• Navigation menu

Sliders suck and should be banned from your website

Five years ago, we wrote about why we really don’t like sliders. We still don’t like sliders. If your theme forces you to include a slider (also named carousels) on your homepage, please realize that it’s making you use a feature that has no value for SEO. A feature that is probably slowing down your site by loading extra JavaScript. And prevents your user from reading the good stuff (your content) immediately. It will most probably account for less conversion as well.

Even though both SEO experts and conversion experts agree on the fact that sliders have little use 99% of the time, website developers insist on adding sliders to their themes. Some customers refer to sliderless themes as “outdated” but we strongly disagree. Let’s make one thing very clear: sliders suck. Let’s explain once more why they suck.

Science and experiments

It’s not often that science is conclusive in its findings. However, sliders seem to be one topic on which it is. There’s literally not one study that we’ve found that says sliders are a good idea. We often point people to  shouldiuseacarousel.com  when wanting to explain why  not to use a slider. This simple website does an awesome job at showing the statistics as well as trigger the annoyance sliders usually evoke.

Let’s look at some of the findings:

• Only 1% of people actually click on a slider , which almost always was the first slide;
• Sliders confuse people , as you’re sending multiple offers they may or may not be interested in at once;
• People simply ignore your slider , because it triggers banner blindness;
• On that same note, visitors just don’t get the message because they will  skip the messages in your slider  as they consider it advertisement or promotions;
• They slow down your site, negatively impacting your SEO and conversion rate ;
• Sliders don’t always work well on mobile devices ;
• They push down your content, which is not smart , as Google already mentioned in 2012;
• It’s most probably as effective to use just one image instead of putting all that effort in slider plugins and images.

And here’s a sheet from Google’s eCommerce Retail Playbook:

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Over the years, many studies have shown that sliders should be avoided.

But… I need a slider!

Ok, so you’re, for instance, a photographer. You need that slider, right? Wrong. People tend to act as if there’s no other way to show their images but by sliders. This simply isn’t true. If you can’t have a slider and you’re a photographer, would you just give up having a website altogether? Of course not, you would look for other options, such as the revolutionary idea of showing  static pictures . If you want moving pictures, you should change careers and become a filmmaker.

Seriously, whatever makes people think that having stuff  move on your website is a good idea, ever, is still beyond me. Auto-playing videos are also annoying, right? You can create awesome collages through which people can browse  at will . The pictures won’t be forced onto them (if they even notice them in the first place), they’ll just notice the ones they like. And trust me, that will sell better.

If you’re a photographer, it’s likely you’re a creative person. You probably make photo albums for people from time to time, which presumably don’t have sliding images. So how about you showcase that skill and creativity by designing your web pages with static images?

What you’re saying with a slider is basically: “I really don’t know which product or picture I should put on display on my homepage, so I’ll just grab 10 of them!” In that case, you really need to add focus. If you don’t know what to choose, how would your visitors or clients? You should know what your own business is about and what product or picture deserves that front page spotlight.

By focusing on the right (static) image or message, you will give people a far better feel of your business, and you as a person, than a slider ever could. Not in the least because sliders, as we’ve said twice now, are simply ignored in most cases. And a message that’s ignored hardly ever comes across (notice the sarcasm).

SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization

There is another reason why we recommend against sliders. Sliders push down your main content, plain and simple. In fact, most sliders we encounter in our consultancy these days, are big enough to fill out any screen. This means the content won’t even be visible above the fold. And this backfires on your SEO efforts, which we’ve already shown through the article linked in the list of findings above.

There’s not a CRO expert that will disagree with us on this: sliders kill your conversions. So simply having a slider on your website, will get you fewer sales than without that slider! If that’s not a deal breaker, I seriously don’t know what is.

Just combine the two and realize what a monstrosity the slider actually is. It kills your rankings  and your conversions!

Mobile websites and sliders

It’s really convenient to include a slider on a mobile website. It allows you to add more content to that page, that smaller screen, without the page becoming too long. What if people have to scroll, right? Well, quite frankly, they are used to that . That’s just one myth you can forget about. It’s not just that. Lots of times, things go wrong when using a slider on a mobile website. Some of the other pitfalls you’ll encounter when adding a slider to a mobile website:

• Image sliders tend to load the desktop site images, not optimized for mobile speed or in fact ruining it for phones on 3g or less.
• The same goes for sliders running on JavaScript. Why add JavaScript for something people will treat as a banner or simply skip to get to your content instead?
• If your slider isn’t responsive, it will ruin your otherwise responsive website. This happens all too often, unfortunately.

Bottom line is that sliders might break more than they add in value for your website. But the main question you should ask yourself when using that slider on your mobile website, even if it’s responsive and optimized, is: do I really need that slider? I can’t imagine you do.

Why should you believe us?

If you don’t believe us, believe these experts who we’ve asked for their opinion and experience with sliders:

Sliders never converted and never will

“Sliders only exist because web designers love them. And because they make the life of the web team easy: they can give every department or product division a place on the homepage. And they don’t have to make choices. But it’s not your job to make your colleagues happy. It’s your job to make your visitors happy. And to sell. And that’s the biggest problem with sliders: they don’t convert. Never did and never will.”

Karl Gilis , Owner of  AGConsult  and renowned conversion expert

Use static images and copy instead

“It’s extremely rare to see sliders work. You’re better off using static images and copy.”

Peep Laja , Owner of ConversionXL.com and Markitekt

Just for portfolio displays

“I think sliders are interesting but somewhat problematic. The biggest problem I see is that if visitors are bouncing from the page in a second or two, they will never see the other options on the slider. If you use a slider for navigation, be sure the same choices are visible in static form, too. I think sliders work best for portfolio displays where several large, strong images can be displayed in the same space without impeding the visitor’s ability to navigate or determine what other content is on the site.”

Roger Dooley , Author of Brainfluence  (also available on Kindle ) and owner of Neurosciencemarketing.com

Sliders are distracting

“I think sliders are distracting. It’s a way to put extra crap on a page that’s typically not best for visitors. If it’s important in most cases you should just put it on the page without sliders or extra clicks.”

Hiten Shah , Co-Founder of Crazyegg and KISSMetrics

Sliders suck 99.8% of the time

“Sliders suck 99.8% of the time! We once did a test with a client where we changed their slider to a static image with 3 core benefits and lifted conversions by a nice amount.”

Bryan Eisenberg , Author of Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It  and Waiting For Your Cat to Bark  (also available on Kindle )

Sliders are evil

“This popular design element is – for many – the go-to solution when there are more messages to put on the home page than there is room to put them. Rather than make the tough decisions that require prioritizing conversion goals, web teams turn to the rotating banner as an offer of compromise. Sliders are absolutely evil and should be removed immediately.”

Tim Ash , CEO at SiteTuners , Author of Landing Page Optimization  (also available on Kindle )

Use a static image instead

“In A/B tests, sliders tend to lose. In fact, one of the easiest ways to grow a page’s conversion rate is to remove the slider, and to replace it with a static image. If you want to be really lazy, you can just test the slider against the static version of each of the slider’s options. The static version usually wins.”

Karl Blanks , Chairman and Co-Founder of Conversion Rate Experts

Sliders deliver little to no value to the customer

“Sliders please the owner of the site, but they deliver little to no value to the customers. The reason is that we are not going to sit there and wait for your ‘movie’ to play out. I’m also not a fan of sliders because for most businesses they provide an excuse not to think about personalization and being good at giving the customer the right answer, right away.”

Avinash Kaushik , Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, Author of Web Analytics 2.0  (Also available on Kindle )

Sliders are hardly accessible

Conversion is one thing, but from an accessibility stand, sliders suck as well. Here’s what our own Andrea has to say about this:

Though there are examples and recommendations to follow to make sliders as accessible as possible, I’ve rarely seen a fully accessible slider being used in production. Sometimes sliders are just not coded with accessibility in mind, sometimes they are but there are so many accessibility requirements to address that missing just a couple of them can be disastrous for accessibility. Interaction with keyboards and assistive technologies is so hard that static content is always preferable. It’s no coincidence that shouldiuseacarousel.com was launched by Jared Smith of WebAIM, one of the most influential and respected organizations committed to spreading out accessibility culture and developing accessible web content.

Andrea Fercia , accessibility expert at Yoast

Honestly, we could go on and on. So no matter how pretty you think sliders are, know this: sliders simply suck .

When we first published our (unchanged) opinion on sliders back in 2014,  UX designer  Ian Armstrong commented that “in some cases, sliders make sense. A slider can be used effectively if it a) tells a story and b) doesn’t auto-forward.” Imagine a real estate page that has a slider for images of a house. It’s not auto-forwarding and helps you to get an idea of the entire house – it tells that story.

Ian also states that “if you properly set expectations and really stress the slider as a story mechanism, you’ll probably see a major uptick in interest.” He’s probably right, or, as Rich Page stated below that initial 2014 post: “If in doubt, TEST IT!” Most of us are used to sliders like that on real estate sites. There is always an exception to the rule, right? Although in this specific case, one might even argue if the ‘slider’ even qualifies as a slider.

Read more: eCommerce usability: the ultimate guide »

Share this post

Thijs is the former CEO of Yoast. He is a behavioural scientist with a lot of love for SEO, open-source and the internet as a whole. He's had all kinds of jobs both within Yoast and outside, such as ecommerce manager, SEO specialist, support engineer and marketeer.

Coming up next!

WordSesh 2024

The SEO update by Yoast - July 2024 Edition

• Accessories
• Entertainment
• PCs & Components
• Wi-Fi & Networks
• Newsletters
• Digital Magazine – Subscribe
• Digital Magazine – Info
• Smart Answers
• Best laptops
• Best antivirus
• Best monitors
• Laptop deals
• Desktop PC deals

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence .

15 Internet Annoyances, and How to Fix Them

You Must Register

The Fix: Some sites, such as the Wall Street Journal , will let you in via aggregators like Google News. So if you’re blocked, try a Google News search on the subject. You can also try snipping some of the text and plugging it into a search engine, in quotes, to see if another site has quoted or summarized the article.

Social Networking Overload

Between Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare and now Google Buzz , there are just too many social networks to keep track of. Sure, you could pick one and stick with it, but then you might only be paying attention to some friends while neglecting others. It’s the worst kind of information overload .

The Fix: Use a program that aggregates several social networks into one interface, such as Digsby or Meebo . You might not get the full functionality of your favorite network, but at least you can keep an eye on status updates with minimal effort.

This Ad is a Video

The Fix: Here’s a neat piece of Windows software called FlashMute. It installs to your system tray and can deny Flash access to your audio hardware. Just click the icon or hit Ctrl-Alt-M to switch it on and off. Note: Anti-virus programs tend to flare up when visiting FlashMute’s download page. The developer says it’s because FlashMute uses the same method of hooking into your browser as some types of AdWare, but it’s only intercepting sound from Flash and other Web sources. Fair warning.

I Don’t Care About Farmville

Farmville ribbons, quiz results, articles on subjects you don’t care about–isn’t Facebook magical? As nice as it is to keep in touch with friends ( or “friends” ) and look at photos from bar night, constantly hearing about the time-killing habbits of others can be downright boring.

The Fix: Firefox users can check out Facebook Purity , a script that’s part of the browser’s GreaseMonkey add-on . It automatically strips quizzes and other application notices from your Facebook home page For everyone else, there’s Facebook Lite , which strips your feed down to its bare essentials.

Too Much Phishing

The Fix: Here are some tips on how to avoid getting scammed , and how to spot malicious links buried in TinyURLs . Fortunately, most browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera, all include some sort of anti-phishing filters.

Don’t Open That Window

The Fix: Firefox users can type about:config in the address bar, search for “browser.link” in the filter field, double click on open_newwindow and change the value to 1. Still, I wish browsers had a “never open in new window or tab” option. My solution was to train myself over many years to open pretty much everything in its own tab.

A Frame to Block Your View

I thought browser frames went out with Netscape Navigator, but once again our Web browsers are being invaded by the DiggBar and its ilk. These are sad attempts to keep us penned in to one site’s pages.

The Fix: Once again, add-ons save the day, at least for Firefox users. The DiggBar Killer script for Firefox’s Grease Monkey add-on will ensure that you never see the DiggBar again.

This Link is an Ad

The Fix: Internet Explorer users have it easy: Go to your list of restricted sites ( Tools, Internet Options, Security, Restricted Sites in IE8 ) and block the following: “*.vibrantmedia.com,” “*.intellitxt.com” and “*.kontera.com.” Firefox users can get the same results by restricting those sites with the BlockSite add-on . Everyone else can block those sites with a free OpenDNS account.

Junk Sites in Search Results

Have you ever navigated past the first or second page of search results? It’s a wasteland of junk Web pages and bad information. If Google, Bing and Yahoo replaced those back pages with a message that read, “You’ve failed. Try again,” I don’t think we’d be any worse off.

The Fix: I can’t make search engines read your mind, but I can shamelessly promote some expert advice on getting better Google searches . And don’t neglect subsections of search engines, such as Google News and Bing Shopping.

This Search Bar is Worthless

The Fix: Head to your search engine of choice and precede your search with site:nameofsite.com “what you’re looking for” for a surprisingly good index of what you seek. Google can even display results by date when you click “Show options.”

We Don’t Serve Your Browser Here

Just because Internet Explorer has over 60 percent of the Web browser market, some sites don’t support any other browser, such as page for HP computers. If you use something else, opening a page in IE feels like sleeping in a stranger’s bed.

The Fix: Use the Coral IE Tab add-on for Firefox and the IE Tabs extension for Chrome. The former even lets you mark specific sites to automatically open an Internet Explorer tab in the future.

I’m Not a Robot, Honest

The Fix: I’ve spent too long looking for an easy solution to no avail. An experimental Firefox add-on called NoCaptcha reportedly doesn’t work. However, MegaUpload users can try MegaUpload TimeAttack , which automatically fills out forms and starts downloads, and SkipScreen helps jump the wait line for Rapidshare and Megaupload. MySpace users can skip CAPTCHA by verifying their account with a phone number . Also, Mashable has some tips for dealing with Facebook’s CAPTCHA : You needn’t type spaces, numbers, dashes, colons, semicolons, apostrophes, characters with umlauts.

This Web Site is Bogus

The Fix: Firefox users can once again use BlockSite to turn one major domain parker’s Web sites into blank pages–just add “*. information.com ” to your restricted list. This will foil the source whose sites always refer back to that domain — if a site displays worthless info, it might as well display nothing, right? Unfortunately the same trick doesn’t work in Internet Explorer’s list of restricted sites.

Flash Spoils Appetites

I don’t understand restaurants’ fascination with Flash Web pages. Maybe they’re intentionally trying draw out the navigation process to make us hungrier, thereby ordering an extra appetizer or two. It’s not working.

The Fix: Why bother with restaurant Web sites any more, especially if you’re dining in a city? Use sites like Yelp and UrbanSpoon for information, OpenTable for reservations and MenuPages for menus.

Five Stars, Big Surprise

The Fix: There is valuable information to be gleaned from the crowd. Just look for consistencies. Steer clear of the 5-star laptop where even the enthused complain of tinny speakers, or the fridge that everyone says can get a little loud.

Your current User-Agent string appears to be from an automated process, if this is incorrect, please click this link:

July 25, 2024

CHECK THIS OUT

Alex Moersen

8 incredibly pointless websites that make uselessness an art form.

Despite its usefulness, the internet is a bastion of futility. Nowadays, we use the internet for everything, which would make it anything but pointless.

But the internet hasn’t always been the helpful source of information it is now. Since its birth in 1991, people have used the internet to create just about anything and everything. The internet is a bottomless well of websites, and not all of them are winners.

Luckily for you, I have too much time on my hands and have productively combed the internet for those websites that haven’t gotten the proper acknowledgement for their ingenuity in the art of pointlessness. So, without further ado, here are the eight most pointless websites on the internet.

Wait! One Quick Note Before We Begin.

Some of these websites are old, like pre-smartphone old. If you’re reading this on your phone, then I cannot guarantee their functionality. So, go use a computer where the internet belongs.

Okay, here they are. What you’ve been waiting for — 8 incredibly pointless websites.

#1 Zombo Com

Ah, Zombo Com . As the first on our list truly, this site defines “artistically worthless.” It originated in 1999 when a group of students and faculty from George Washington University Center for Professional Development wanted to play around with a brand new technology: flash animation. Yes, even flash animation was new at one point, and this group took advantage of all it had to offer.

The site is aesthetically pleasing enough, hosting bright colors and audio motivational messages such as, “Anything is possible at Zombo Com.” And that’s really it. For its minimalist style, the site is strangely alluring. It’s a nice flashback to when technology was simpler and not so pervasive. It’s good for a pick-me-up, maybe a minute of entertainment, and that’s about it.

#2 PointerPointer

Sick of having to locate your cursor on your own volition? Love looking at pictures of people you’ve never met before? This website was made for you, I guess. PointerPointer may look simple and well, pointless … but underneath it’s triviality lies a hidden sophistication. On the surface, all the user has to do is place their cursor on the screen. After a few seconds, a picture will pop up that points to your cursor. Fascinating stuff.

But, what makes this website so neat isn’t just the endless amount of people pointing in photos, but really it’s the site’s accuracy and ability to find your cursor perfectly. The basics that I could gather was that the site uses a Voronoi Diagram to find the X and Y coordinates of your cursor and then display the corresponding picture.

The database seems to have unlimited pictures for every nook and cranny that you can fit your cursor into, so who knows how long it took to gather all of those photos. But, as I said, this site is surprisingly complex (at least to a computer amateur like me), so here’s a video that better explains all that’s going on. But at the end of the day, this site isn’t really good for much unless you don’t know how to locate your own cursor or if you want to scour the photo database for your future spouse.

#3 CacheMonet

With a name like CacheMonet , how can this website not be one of the most awesome gems on the internet? Like the other sites on this list, it does nothing more than briefly entertain. The Unix Philosophy coined the age old adage, “Do one thing and do it well.” While it’s hard to actually figure out what CacheMonet’s one thing is, few people would deny that they do it well.

The website essentially takes you on a visually intoxicating journey through 90s internet media, featuring a song built by Windows 95 sound bites that is sure to be stuck in your head for literally the rest of your life. As they say on the site, “cachemonet is an exploration into the serendipitous collisions that occur between two randomly generated arrays.”

I’m hesitant to tell you more, as CacheMonet is an experience in itself and must be treated as such. I could describe it to you, but it’s probably better if you just see it for yourself. It’s good for displaying on your TVs during house parties and revisiting the beauty of the 90s.

#4 SometimesRedSometimesBlue

If you’re still reading this post about pointless websites (making the post in itself pointless), then you’re probably starting to realize that the name of these sites usually tells most of the story. Zombo.com is all about Zombo Com; PointerPointer points to your pointer. Well, no site is as true to its name as SometimesRedSometimesBlue . I’ll give you a second to guess what it might do…

Yep. Sometimes it displays a red screen, and sometimes blue. That’s it.

This is by far the simplest and most aimless website on this list. And that is what makes it so fantastic. I mean, in this age of tech where everything does something, it’s refreshing to find something that quite literally does nothing.

Due to its simplicity, there isn’t much to say about the website. It doesn’t go back and forth between red and blue — you may get 3 reds in a row. This site is good for the gambling person or just someone who needs a cheap thrill.

#5 SomethingOpen

I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at here. It’s pipes, maybe? That’s the best I can come up with. I guess it’s kind of like that Windows 3D Pipes Screensaver had an existential crisis.

SomethingOpen has no sound and nothing to click. It’s just endless zooming on the world of constantly respawning gray boxes.

I imagine it’s what the other side of black hole might look like. Despite its name, or perhaps because of it, nothing ever opens. Or maybe the site is named after the phrase that people started shouting after hours of visual torture.

Obviously my descriptions of it aren’t doing any good, so you’ll probably have to go check it out on your own. Just beware of being sucked into the abyss of this existential purgatory.

#6 Annoying Cursor

Boy, does this one live up to its name. This is easily my least favorite website on the list. Not because of it’s lack of entertainment value or content, but because it is so annoying. I got stuck on this website for five minutes. Literally stuck. I was not able to exit it because I had lost control of my cursor.

Five minutes may not sound like a long time, but just think about the last time you were actually stuck on a website. It doesn’t happen that often, does it?

I hesitate to tell you what this site does so that you can feel the same pain that I did, but luckily I’m in a generous mood. It basically inverts all of your cursor movements and makes it impossible to access your address bar from below.

It may not sound like that much of a pain, but I assure you it is. Or maybe I’m just incompetent. Probably a mix of both. But, I encourage you to give it a try and see how you deal with the Annoying Cursor .

#7 SpaceJam.Com

What’s fascinating about SpaceJam.com is that at one point in time, it actually had a purpose. As you probably guessed, this is the original website for the 1996 film Space Jam.

A site that once worked to promote the film is now no more than a relic. But the intrigue here is that everything still works. You can still play the games, click the links, and do the other few things that the website has to offer (remember, this was 1996, so the site doesn’t do much).

Also, the site is so 90s it hurts. Well, it doesn’t hurt. It’s actually pretty awesome. So, if you’re a millennial like me and love Space Jam — apparently we all do — or if you just like Internet history, then you should probably check out this website.

#8 Pointless.Com

And now, the cornerstone of all pointless websites. If you were unsatisfied with my picks and analyses of useless sites, then try Pointless.com . Just click a button and the site will randomly generate even more fruitless internet content. It’s perfect for those who need to procrastinate or just have extremely boring existences like my own.

Did I miss any? Whats the most pointless website you know?

By Alex Moersen

Alex Moersen is an Associate Editor for Innovation & Tech Today, covering pop culture, science and tech, sustainability, and more. Twitter: @yaboii_shanoo

More Articles

Crypto NFT Today: The Latest News in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency & NFTs: Feb. 1 – Feb. 7, 2023

Our Future Is Biotech: How Tech Is Changing Our Lives for the Better

2 in 3 Americans Shout at Their Virtual Assistant, Study Finds

3 Ways To Better Live Event Security & Patron Experience This Summer

Search our site​.

GET THE LATEST ISSUE IN YOUR INBOX​

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER NOW!​

We hate spam too. You'll get great content and exclusive offers. Nothing more.

TOP POSTS THIS WEEK

Innovation & tech today - social media​.

INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES WORLDWIDE, INC.

720.476.4920

©Innovation & Tech Today 2024. All rights reserved.

Looking for the latest tech news? We have you covered.

Google Should Penalize Multi-Page Articles: Here’s Why

This page may contain links from our sponsors. Here’s how we make money .

When writing most articles, I usually end up on a news blog at some point or another searching for facts, statistics, or a reference to back up my opinion. As a health nut, I often find myself browsing through nutrition or fitness blogs for updated findings on health.

The problem is that many of these informational or news websites make it extremely difficult to do what I do best when I need to digest a bunch of information in a short amount of time: skim the content quickly to pick up the main points.

Why is so hard to skim these articles?

Because the blogs break up the information into several pages. These multi-page articles (also called slideshow or pagination posts) require me to click somewhere on the page to get to the next section in the article, thereby forcing me to spend way more time than necessary reading an article.

Women’s Health is notorious for super long slideshow posts like this one .

I am not the only one who hates multi-page articles either. In fact, it seems that many bloggers, web designers, and (most importantly) website users rant and rave about the paginated article practice quite loudly. Farhad ManJoo of Slate calls multi-page stories a “ contemptuous, myopic, evil practice “. He even beseeched the editor of Slate, David Plotz, to do away with pagination for articles (to which Plotz only agreed to keep articles of less than 1,200 words to a single page). He’s not the only one, though.

If you read opinions about multi-page articles, you may notice lots of negative words such as “darn thing”, “banishing…forever”, “first world problems”, “stupid”, “annoying”, “pageview mongering”, and my favorite, “despise…with the heat of a million suns”. Yes, that last description from Josh Clark of GlobalMoxie.com describes my feelings exactly.

My conclusion?

Google should severely punish websites that use pagination for articles. Now, in Google’s defense, it already makes it difficult for blogs to gain positive SEO benefits from multi-page articles. But apparently, that isn’t enough to make some blogs cease the practice.

Most web designers and SEO experts already do everything in their power to convince clients not to fall into this horrible article layout. But, let’s not fool ourselves, we ultimately have to do what our clients want. This brings us back to the plea with Google to use its seemingly unlimited power to stop such a horrific act on the web.

Let’s take a closer look at multi-page articles and why Google should put them on the blacklist.

What Are Multi-Page Articles?

Most websites will break up lists of information, such as search results, using pagination. This simply means that if the list includes more than, say, 10 results, the next 5 results will be displayed on the next page, and so on and so forth. This is perfectly reasonable. If you use the right keywords in a search, you’ll usually find what you need within the first few results.

A search for “web design” on Vandelay’s blog turned up more than 1,000 results; pagination keeps the list manageable and loading quickly.

However, using pagination for articles is not so reasonable. Most websites that break up posts into several pages do so by section. So, the intro is one section, the first point is in another section, the second point is in another section, and so it goes until the conclusion. What if an article is a roundup or list? Well, then, each item in the list gets its own page, even if the list includes 50 items!

To get from one page to the next, multi-page articles require readers to click on a button or on the image to go to the next point on another page. Lots of clicking and waiting then ensue for the next however many minutes it takes to get through the entire piece.

Why Use Pagination for Posts?

Some websites claim that pagination is good for users. It breaks long articles into short chunks that are easier to digest (um, isn’t this what subheadings are for?) and that require less scrolling. However, I don’t buy it. Yes, breaking an article into shorter chunks is why we have subheadings. And, also, scrolling down is quite easy whether you’re on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

Most websites use multi-page article layouts for financial reasons, whether they will admit it or not. Multi-page articles force readers to spend more time on the website and visit more pages (significantly more). This increases the total pageviews per user, which the website can then show advertisers, “Look how popular we are! Look how many awesome impressions we serve!” Then advertisers are more likely to buy ad space from the website. (You may notice that all of the screen shots in this article reveal a side bar chock full of ads.)

Another reason websites use this layout is to trick you into clicking an ad, which results in revenue for the website owner. I’m sure you’re familiar with the ads that use clickbaity titles and lead to (usually) pointless content. Many of the ad headlines involve celebrities or something else that is likely to make you curious.

Clicking on theses advertisements will lead you to a page with very little content and lots of other ads. The “next” button that if you to click is often sandwiched between ads so if you make an errant click, the website owner will make money.

Google Likes Usability (Supposedly)

Google is on the side of users, which means it should like usability. And it does, for the most part. Yet, we still have these major informational blogs that present content in a very unusable layout.

One of the most obvious usability issues of slideshow posts I have already mentioned above. They aren’t skimmable. At all. You can skim the paragraph or two on that page, of course. But to get to the next point, you have to find the “next” button, click on it, and then wait for the next page to load.

And this brings me to the other usability issues. Even the fast loading pagination articles do not load nearly quickly enough for impatient readers like myself. I’m used to ingesting a 2,000 word article in less than a minute, maybe two minutes if I need to slow down on a technical point. So a slideshow-like layout slows me down so that it can take me up to 5 or even 10 minutes to read or skim through an entire article.

Even worse is that each website lays out its pages differently. Some require readers to click on the image to move to the next slide. Others require readers to click on an arrow. Still others place a “Next” button. Then there’s the placement of the buttons. Some put it on the right side of the image or paragraph, while another may place it at the bottom of the page, depending on if the text is to the right or below the image.

Finally, what if I want to revisit the third point, once I’m finally through the entire post? Most require readers to click back through the pages in order, with no navigation buttons for skipping around.

Muli-Page Articles = Difficult SEO

Now for the point that SEO experts need to hear. If your client brings up multi-page articles as an idea for their website design, tell them just how bad it can be for SEO purposes. If they already have a pagination setup for posts, then you may be able to convince them to exchange them for single-page articles on the basis of poor search engine results.

Vasilis Vryniotis of WebSEO Analytics Blog points out that “ pagination causes massive problems on SEO “. He mentions a drop in page rank, making it difficult for search engines to crawl and index pages, possible duplicate content problems, and even poor link architecture as SEO troubles associated with multi-page articles.

Keep in mind, too, that Google has in recent years made it very clear that long content is in. Pagination breaks what would be long content into short snippets across several pages, which doesn’t look good to Google.

Multiple Solutions

There is actually more than one solution to this awful slideshow post problem. The first one may make news blogs (and web designers with very insistent clients) jump with joy: Give readers the option – at the top of the page! Multi-page articles should include a link at the very beginning of the article that readers can click to see the article as a single-page post. I have seen a few do this, such as Slate, except they all place the optional link at the bottom of the article. How helpful is that?

Slate , move your Single Page link to the top of the article, please!

The second solution is to use hacks. This is obviously for a reader’s benefit. LifeHacker presents three excellent hacks for seeing a multi-page article in single-page view , including opening it in printer-friendly view. Or you can use Page Zipper to unpack pagination into a single page view.

Another excellent idea is to simply do what has always worked with online articles from the beginning of usability efforts. Keep articles to a single page, but break it up with images, drop quotes, and subtitles. Wow, what a brilliant idea!

Buzzfeed ‘s articles always include stunning images, blockquotes, and even an arrow in the right-hand corner to immediately take you to the top of the page.

The final solution is simply an embarrassing, grovel-like plea with Google to use their superpowers to punish these hateful, selfish multi-page article websites. After all, Google, aren’t you the knight in shining armor for web users? Web designers, developers, SEO experts, and bloggers can only do so much to beg with website owners to keep a design usable. In the end, it’s ultimately up to you, Google, to save us all from the fire-breathing, time-sucking dragon that are multi-page articles.

Tara Hornor enjoys writing about advertising, marketing, branding, web and graphic design, and more. As Senior Editor for Creative Content Experts, she has over 2,000 published articles on the web. Connect with @TaraHornor for more design and freelancing advice.

13 Odd Online Ads Snopes Fact-Checked in 2021

Worry not, as you will find no long slideshow articles here. our entire story is presented on a single page., jordan liles, published dec. 25, 2021.

Readers are likely familiar with online advertisements that make bold and often misleading claims in order to get clicks. The resulting articles usually present slideshows that require a seemingly endless number of "next page" clicks in order to find the answer that was promised in the ad. That answer is sometimes never even revealed.

For example, this ad claimed : "Woman Files For Divorce After Seeing This Photo – Can You See Why?”

The ad led to a 77-page slideshow article. On the last page, it revealed that the whole thing was "a made-up story for entertainment purposes." Yes, you read that right: 77 pages.

The reason why these kinds of ads lead to articles with lots of pages is simple: money. A budget is needed to display the original ads on the internet that lure readers to the long slideshow articles. In order to make that money back and even profit, scammers fill the many pages of their slideshow articles with sometimes hundreds of ads. This is called advertising arbitrage .

We've put together 13 such odd ads that we fact-checked in 2021, and we're going with the novel approach of listing all of them out on a single page.

Note: This page is part of our annual review of Snopes’ content, and you can read all of our “Staff Picks & Standouts” for a variety of content categories here .

Is This a Picture of a Shirtless Donald Trump?

False. We couldn't find out who this man was, but we know for sure it did not show a young Donald Trump. The ad in this story led to a long article that never even mentioned the photo.

Is This a ‘New Animal Species Taking Over Chernobyl’?

Miscaptioned. This ad was misleading. In reality, the picture showed a spectacled (hairless) Andean bear named Dolores.

The Truth Behind the ‘Day at the Beach Gone Wrong’ Photo

False. This photo was a fake of a fake. Whoever created it added a larger wave onto an already doctored picture.

Does Putting a Ziplock Bag Over a Car Mirror Have a Legitimate Purpose?

True. Remarkably, the answer to this one is yes. A bag over a car mirror can keep ice and snow from collecting in cold weather. However, it's unclear if this is something that a lot of drivers are doing.

Should a Bottle Always Be Put on Tires When Parked?

False. We found two ads about this subject. They each led to 50-page slideshow articles. None of the 100 pages mentioned anything about placing a bottle on a tire when parked.

Was Dr. Phil’s Divorce Settlement ‘Finally Revealed’ as $1M?

False. This ad showed Dr. Phil McGraw with his second and current wife, Robin McGraw. They are not divorced. However, the article only mentioned his first wife, Debbie Higgins. We found no credible sources that confirmed they had a $1 million divorce settlement.

Did Lily from the AT&T Commercials ‘Confirm Rumors’?

False. In 2021, several online ads targeted actor Milana Vayntrub with baseless accusations. Vayntrub portrays Lily in AT&T TV commercials. The articles that resulted from the ads never ended up addressing the accusations from the ads.

Can WD-40 Fix Cracked Phone Screens?

False. The ad led to a 43-page article that never even mentioned phones at all. Please don't spray your phones with WD-40.

Do McDonald’s Golden Arches Symbolize a Mother’s Breasts?

True. We told you that these would be odd. Some of them are odd and false. This one is oddly true.

The ‘World’s Loneliest House’: Elliðaey’s Myths Debunked

False. The claim here was that this small Icelandic island has a house with a dark truth about why it's empty. Also, it's said that Björk once lived there. Neither of these was true. We decided to use the opportunity to document the myths of the island.

Did Pipes Sticking Out of the Ground in the Woods Lead to a Discovery Underneath?

True. Two men really did photograph their exploration of the bunker pipes that were sticking out of the ground in northern Germany. However, we recommend reading our story instead of relying on the misleading ad below. The articles that resulted from this ad led to a dramatized story with fictitious names.

Ad Promises WD-40 Trick for Gas Tanks … 70-Page Article Never Mentions It

False. Yes, it's WD-40 again. Please don't spray your gas tank with WD-40. None of the pages in the long article mentioned anything about spraying WD-40 at a car's gas tank.

Should an Empty Toilet Paper Roll or Red Cup Be Placed Under the Toilet Seat at Night?

False. The ad below led to an article that never mentioned why an empty toilet paper roll or red cup should go under a toilet seat at night. If we had to guess, it's possible that placing an empty toilet paper roll under the seat might alert others that there's no toilet paper. However, why "at night," specifically? The article didn't mention this, so we rated the claim as "False."

Want an ad fact-checked in 2022? Submit your ad screenshots and links (we'll need both to check them out) to Snopes, subscribe to our newsletters , and support us financially by becoming a member or making a direct contribution .

By Jordan Liles

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

Article Tags

15 Most Annoying Email Newsletters to Sign Horrible People Up to

Published on august 2, 2017 at 1:03 am by madison morgan in lists.

In this day and age of high technology, pissing people off on the internet is not hard, and if you’re really trying to get back at someone, our list of the most annoying email newsletters to sign horrible people up to  just might be the trick.

We all have that one friend, or worse, a lot of friends, who are just plain annoying. It could be the office bully, your constant frenemy, a know-it-all colleague, or everyday people who just irk you by existing. We have different pet peeves, which only goes to show how varied our ideas are when it comes to what’s annoying and what’s not. If you’ve had it with that person, but you’re a decent human being and not trying to harm them, there are lots of passive-aggressive ways to get back at them. For instance, sign them up for a really annoying email newsletter that will pop up in their inbox multiple times a week.

You may be asking why signing these people up in annoying email newsletters would do you any good. Well, for starters, we all get irked when we get excited about an email notification, thinking it is the news we are waiting for, only to find out that it’s a spam email. These email newsletters are sent to promote a company’s products and/or services, which could be okay at first, but gets annoying when you get them too many times in a week.

Copyright: loganban / 123RF Stock Photo

While we have different ideas on what’s annoying and what’s not, it all boils down to receiving things we are not even a bit interested in. Imagine someone bugging you about children’s stuff when you’re single and loving the way you live life on your own, or a wedding website sending you great deals on gowns and flowers when you had just broken up with your beau. There are hundreds of thousands of websites around the internet, most of which are using newsletters to reach out to their target market.

It would also be interesting to know about the Most Annoying Business Phrases and Buzzwords , which you could slip into your own emails to that person getting on your nerves.

Newsletters are almost always free, which makes it even easier to just sign up anyone you wish to annoy. It has become a popular way of getting back to annoying people since you wouldn’t end up in a physical fight and you don’t have to pay for anything. Plus, there are just so many options to choose from. Just know what irks them the most and go from there. Annoying email newsletters usually contain almost nonsensical stuff about nothing you care about.

When you search the internet about annoying email newsletters, you are most likely to come up with a diverse category of emails, such as newsletters from realtors, kids’ clothing companies, parenting websites, news sites, and so much more. In looking for the most annoying email newsletters to sign horrible people up to, we had to search the internet for credible sources on annoying email newsletter subscriptions. We were able to find informative and relevant articles from Yahoo , App Store Chronicle , and Fortune . We took every email newsletter mentioned in all three sources and included them all in this list. The newsletters on our list came up the most in our searches, but there is no quantitative way to rank them on the list.

Continue reading to know more about the most annoying email newsletters to sign horrible people up to.

Slideshow List XFinance annoying emails spamming emails sign up email spam Eventful newsletteer annoying email pranks funny email subscriptions cat facts email subscription funny things to sign your friends up for email Show more... Show less