January 1st Will Bring Better Browsing
No, not because of the potential upcoming disaster of net non-neutrality but because Google will be updating Chrome to stop videos from playing automatically. Not too long ago, maybe out of a drive to get a higher view count, someone at a major news outlet decided to update their site to add video overlay that automatically started to play.
The idea has caught on and it’s now led to either blocker extensions for Chrome or users running to the mute button. In the end, people don’t like being surprised in a way that doesn’t provide them with value. Playing a video when you intend to read an article is one of those.
The same lesson can be applied to voice interaction. If someone is expected music but they get a spoken response, that’s not good. If someone wants quiet at night but their Echo blurts out a very loud response to a request, that’s not good either.
