Posted by nopopups under Desi at September 28, 2006 at 03:03 AM GMT
Most Indian targeted websites do not seem to do market research on
consumer sentiments. Dont they ever think of the users instead of
"optimizing" their screen space to present advertisements or create new
space with popups??
Here are a few examples of the blatant use of popups on some of the most famous Indian websites:
(Note: All these screenshots are captured while browsing these sites using Internet Explorer. There has been no manipulation in the screenshots. Also note that this is a full screen of a laptop screen that is captured. So this is basically what you get on the front page!)
Rediff.com: Now where is the news I came to read???
Sulekha: "Optimized" utilization of screen space. Most annoying use of
popups using flash which regular popup blockers cannot stop!!
Naukri: Has 2 popups. At least the content isnt completely blocked!
Times Of India: Do you even visit TOI anymore???
IndiaTimes: Its the same umbrella company as TOI. So what else did you expect??
Samachar: I remember the days when I used to visit Samachar and it was clean .. well not anymore!
Sify: How can Sify fall behind?
Hindustan Times: Too many popups here too!
123India: Not far behind
RadioSargam: Smaller sites following their idols' footsteps?
Hindu: No popups 'yet'. But content size is going down a lot these days
The sad part is all these websites used to be decent once. And we really liked the content they provided, but commercialization has killed their utility for us now. Here are a few oldies:
Samachar in 1998:
Rediff in 1998:
Even Sulekha was clean all the way upto 2001:
Posted by nopopups under India at September 09, 2006 at 07:46 AM GMT
When we were coming up with the User Interface and user experience for Desihub, we analysed
most of the popular Indian websites to see what the experience of Indian users today is.
We
surveyed the typical Indian user to see what the level of
satisfaction of these users with these sites is. And the most overwhelming
response could be summed in the following comment provided by one user:
I have stopped visiting Indian websites and portals for 3 primary reasons:
1. Popups
2. Popups
3. Popups
I have already found or am in search of valid alternatives for these so called popular websites.
We
think we can probably elaborate on those reasons a bit. We at Desihub
think that even though the indian websites are getting popular with the
number of hits increasing, they are still stuck in the web1.0 world of
popups. Thats the primary reason. Probably the way the executives there
rationalize this decision by touting the TINA (there is no alternative)
factor, they think they can get away with anything. Although doing this
they have been taking the Indian users for granted!
Now newer web2.0 sites like desihub.com, with text and image ads, but
no popup ads, are coming up and soon will start giving these more
established sites a run for their money.
For the traditional websites its hard to change their ways as that
means impacting their top and bottom lines. So startups like ours have
an inherent advantage.
Join us at
Desihub to start the revolution and stop the popup ads and enter the new web world!
Wait for our next post which illustrates the transition of popular websites from content focussed to ads/adware/popup focused portals.
Posted by nopopups under General at September 04, 2006 at 08:48 AM GMT
Indian user is taken for granted, so-called popular Indian portals are displaying all kinds of pop-up ads, installing spy wares on user computers. It is a shortsighted approach, as users get educated on what those ads are doing to their computers, they will never return to that site.
Desihub believes in rich user experience and quality content, we have strict policy of not allowing any pop-up ads in entire site.
Enjoy the pop-up free clean experience at Desihub, your feedback is always welcome
Desihub Team
