How Voice Enhances Life Online 131
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "A Wall Street Journal article looks at the myriad ways, some surprising, that voice is being integrated into websites and other online tools. Usages range from the familiar--multiplayer gaming--to conducting business transactions and long-distance relationships. 'Ten years ago, the first Web sites were like company brochures, says Jeff Pulver, the VoIP pioneer. 'No one ever expected to have the ability to engage a community virtually. But now a lot of services are becoming a part of the Internet experience, including video, email and voice.'" Update: 08/27 00:12 GMT by Z : Corrected the attempt to 'enchant' and 'enhance' in the same word.
Arg (Score:1, Funny)
Experience = Annoying (Score:5, Insightful)
Voice has it's place, and for meetings or tech support it's OK, but in many places it has become the blink tag of the 21st century.
Re:Experience = Annoying, Your Fault :^) (Score:2)
And are you regularly deleting your cookies that would tell it you've already heard this message? :^)
Re:Experience = Annoying, Your Fault :^) (Score:2)
Not intentionally, but I run Linux and Opera, so who knows how the page interpreted my visits.
Re:Experience = Annoying, Your Fault :^) (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Experience = Annoying, Your Fault :^) (Score:1)
Heh... I sometimes run into this sort of issue, but I have to acknowledge it's my own fault for symlinking my cookies file to /dev/null. But I am still happy enough with my choice not to tell the world about my browsing habits.
Note to web designers: SOUND IS OFF (Score:5, Insightful)
Does HTTP, etc. offer anyway for a web page to check if sound is even on? If not, then sound is only useful for useless background audio.
Personally, I think voice is a horrible one-to-many communication medium because it is intrusive and linear -- its not browsable. It's like all those horrible Flash animations that slow down the user to a 1st grade reading level while you wait for the words to swirl/materialize into place.
Please keep the web self-paced (not designer-paced).
Re:Note to web designers: SOUND IS OFF (Score:2, Funny)
Probably in Windows. I mean, I assume there is some security hole somewhere that would allow it.
Re:Note to web designers: SOUND IS OFF (Score:1)
I leave the system set with sound unmuted, since I find it much quicker to adjust by physically reaching across the desk and tweaking the volume button om the speakers manually. No html or javascript in the world is going to detect that.
I mostly leave it set at zero, however, since I find unsolicited noises annoying and intrusive.
Re:Note to web designers: SOUND IS OFF (Score:3, Funny)
can you imagine a coffee shop full of people with voice-enabled ads?
sounds like a good excuse to spill coffee on their keyboards.
Re:Note to web designers: SOUND IS OFF (Score:3, Informative)
Does HTTP, etc. offer anyway for a web page to check if sound is even on?
Yes, via Accept-Encoding. You can set it up so that audio types (audio/* for the most part) rank below, say, a blank text file (text/plain). Then use MultiViews (content negotiation) on your server, and set up BackgroundSound.wav and BackgroundSound.txt (empty), and just do <embed src="BackgroundSound"^gt; with no extension.
The mechanism is in place on the protocol level. Server admins have to start setting up the double-file trick,
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop treating the internet like a fucking night club or highschools you stupid fucks. Jesus fucking christ. ENOUGH ALREADY.
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:4, Informative)
in FPS's, and even real time role play live voice chat can be very useful. As real time decisions can be made enhancing tactical strategy.
Though I can't even imagine a voice or video blog.
Heck i stay off the phone whenever possible. But somethings work better with voice.
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:1)
It just depresses me that the internet is turning into one big version of those phone chat lines they advertise at 3am on local/cable stations for total losers who have nothing better to do on a Friday or saturday night than call some "chat line" to talk to other fugly desperate and boring people for $3.99/minute.
When it comes down to it, that's mostly what livejournal, meetup, makoutclub and all these things are turning into. With s
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:1)
Voice in online games is worse (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:1)
I, as I know other webmasters were, tried doing this in the 90s. Because of the lesser availability of broadband technology back then, however, it didn't really take off.
Now that broadband technology is here, my opinion remains the same as it was back then: voice is inappropriate in many situations. There is that new company that I have come across many times touting a flash app that puts a talking head on your site. To most webmasters, it's just another useless tool to add s
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:1)
it doesn't have to be annoying (Score:2)
When creating the tools in vobbo [vobbo.com] to embed video blogs in other sites, we went out of our way to create nice placeholders that were silent and bandwidth friendly UNTIL the user decided they were ready to get video and sound. This saves us bandwidth, and saves the user a potential annoyance. As with all things web related, its really the implementation that makes the difference
Re:Experience = Annoying (Score:2)
Voice (or any sound) when you do not expect it and it is not appropriate for the situation, is annoying.
Voice in MMOs to let you quickly and efficiently organize things = wonderful!
Voice on theonion.com because some liquor distributor thinks it's clever to have their ad literally scream at you = horrible idea, and someone should be slapped.
I'm all for engaging as many senses and communications methods as possible *IF THEY ARE APPROPRIATE* and not done for nove
Re:Experience = Annoying [Voice and HCI] (Score:1)
"Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and advances the Human-Computer Relationship." ($21.45 at huge online bookstore near you).
It presents research on voice interaction and gives advice about how to do voice without annoying people so much. I've not read it yet but it's on my list.
So how do it...? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So how do it...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Pop up ads and animated ads drive me crazy (Score:2, Interesting)
and then throw sound in and I get really miffed.
whoever thought it was a good idea obviously has never watched pop-up videos on MTV2 - the only reason it's funny is they keep popping up and getting in the way and it reminds you of how you hate that kind of thing.
Re:Pop up ads and animated ads drive me crazy (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pop up ads and animated ads drive me crazy (Score:2)
Re:Pop up ads and animated ads drive me crazy (Score:1)
In fact a nice firefox extension would be to mute the browser (possibly on toggle)
Remote Exploit (Score:5, Funny)
Co-worker: "Run. Cee emm dee dot ee ex ee!"
Me: "FORMAT! See Colon! Yes! Yes!"
> Ten years ago, the first Web sites were like company brochures, says Jeff Pulver, the VoIP pioneer. 'No one ever expected to have the ability to engage a community virtually...
Jeff: "But now a lot of services are becoming a part of the Internet experience, including video, email and voice."
Me: "Aitch-tee-tee-pee colon slash slash. Goat dot cee ex. And be thankful it's only the pumpkin version these days."
How Voice Creates Profits Online (Score:2, Funny)
2. ???
3. Profit!
Re:Enchances (Score:1)
Re:Enchances -- Maybe (Score:2)
Not according to the Microsoft spell checker.
However, Google found 9,910 uses of it!
Re:Enchances -- Maybe (Score:1)
Re:Enchances (Score:1)
Re:Enchances (Score:1)
Nope, isn't that where their HQ is (or San Francisco)?
Voice = Annoying! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:2)
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:2)
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:1)
I hate those.
I LOVE THOSE (Score:2)
In the early mid 90's I changes a friends to say I've got MAIL...Pattern baldness.!"
I think he still uses it.
Also I change another friends so it says "Mail for you, sir."(from monty python's "Holy Grail")
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:1)
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:2)
Just use Linux! (Score:2)
I kid! I kid!*
Actually, my Ubuntu box handles audio on websites rather too well for my liking. It's such an unpleasant surprise to be greeted with some obnoxious sound effect or gratingly overcompressed voice that I sometimes pine for the days of incomplete audio support.
* Well, mostly. Audio support and standardisation could be better.
Re:Voice = Annoying! (Score:1)
New button (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New button (Score:1)
Re:New button (Score:2)
Re:New button (Score:3, Informative)
Tools->Preferences->Content: Enable sound in web pages.
Been there for years. Always off in my settings.
Re:New button (Score:2)
Re:New button (Score:2)
Re:New button (Score:2)
Sometimes I want my browser to play sounds - web radio, for example. But I only want it to play sounds that I've explicitly told it to play. I don't want sounds from adverts, and I don't want the crappy background music that some idiots insist on adding to their pages.
In other words, what I really want is the audio equivalent of popup blocking...
VoIP in games (Score:1, Funny)
Re:VoIP in games (Score:1)
Re:VoIP in games (Score:1)
What a crappy article (Score:4, Insightful)
VoIP already in use (Score:5, Informative)
And for a long time at that (Score:2)
Re:VoIP already in use (Score:1)
pros and cons (Score:1)
one is where I want to view or listen, say an entertainment site.
the second is where the site "forces" me to view/listen to its advt/propaganda and I have no control: this makes it annoying, and brochures are meant to be brochures, not something thrust onto my face when I visit a site.. I would stop going there, or disable such things in my browser, or better still use a text based browser for such sites.
in short: I prefer what I want to see, I want to control my prefer
Is voice really 'back'? (Score:2)
My guess is it'll eventually go the way of flash intros and bgsound tags.
Cyber (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Cyber (Score:2)
Re:Cyber (Score:1)
hmm (Score:1)
I strongly believe our tools are dated compa
Just xBox Live people wanting to justify DSL (Score:3, Funny)
sad, very sad.
Commander: I have to go to the bathroom now.
Squadron Leader1: Me too
Squadron Leader2: OMFG! We're under attack you newbs!
Re:Just xBox Live people wanting to justify DSL (Score:2)
Jesse.
Voice is great so long as you can block it (Score:1)
At the same time, there are so many pre-pubecent Halo brats I've wanted to beat senseless for their talk BS. It can be great, but without controls and ways to boot the obnoxious VoIP can really suck. We've had it for years with text, but hearing 12 ye
dislike voice (Score:5, Insightful)
The other reason is i hate most peoples accents online. thats kind of a personal attack but i'm really not going to take orders from, or have leadership confidence in, some guy who sounds like he lives in his parents basement and starts wheezing when he gets excited.
again, it ruins the ambiance.
Re:dislike voice (Score:1)
Re:dislike voice (Score:1)
A. Asthma is sexy. B. Voice improves survivability and time spent enough that people will do it. So the question is, when can I get a plugin to make me sound like a 19 year old woman. No, I'd never exploit it f
Re:dislike voice (Score:2)
My elf has donkey ears!
Seriously, I guess if you are into the whole roleplaying aspect and playing on an RP server, I suppose I can see that being a problem. Honestly, if you are gaming and not rping, I think the benefits of voice outweigh the problems.
I like the separation of player from character (Score:2, Insightful)
When I play with the same group for a while, especially across different games, where we know each other to at least some degree as existing beyond any one particular character, I find we tend to naturally talk as players on voice, and as characters in text -- if we want to have our character say something in character, (usually trying and failing to be funny, heh) we'll use the in-game text to have it come from the character'
yea.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:yea.. (Score:1)
online website voice helpdesk (Score:1)
voice is good (Score:2)
Re:voice is good (Score:2)
Like adding Keebler elves to your pudding.
So... (Score:1)
Article summary (Score:3, Informative)
- Voice chat is used in e.g. Skype (my example) for conferencing and dating.
- Some people even use voice chat in FPS games for business conferences. (wtf?)
- There exist services for phone Internet interaction.
- Google Talk has been released.
- A managing director think Internet phoning will become important.
- A couple got engaged after they were able to talk more via voice chat than they could have been on phones.
- 20% of 20 million gamers use voice chat, +10% from last year, according to Vonex.
Hmm, a strange potpurri of voice related buzz anyway... Most, if not all, of which any respectable nerd should have realized before reading the article.
Re:Article summary (Score:1)
Re:Article summary (Score:1)
Re:Article summary (Score:1)
Yes sorry sir, my mouse slipped and I fired by mistake, yes sir I will make sure it does not happen again.
What we really need are two-way ads (Score:1)
Hey, two can play at this game
Re:What we really need are two-way ads (Score:3, Insightful)
(for those to lazy to go there: I mean the device to stab people in the face over the internet)
Windowsz .... Enchances ... (Score:2)
Pr0n ?!? (Score:4, Funny)
email: it's what's new (Score:4, Funny)
Email is becomming part of the internet experience? Hooray! I've been wanting to try this cool new technology for a long time...
oh great, now were going to have (Score:3, Funny)
Voice Online saves my sanity (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Voice Online saves my sanity (Score:2)
Uh oh. I see where this is going. (Score:2)
Enhances? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Enhances? (Score:1)
Re:Enhances? (Score:1)
Voice is there because it is far faster to speak than type. Typing is not an option in fast paced games.
Wow, MS did it again! (Score:1)
How Voice Degrades Life Online (Score:3, Insightful)
How exactly is this going to 'enhance' life online for those of us who are deaf?
Not to mention the various problems with voice media - it's not easily searchable, you can't translate it with bablefish, it's low bandwidth, you can't cut and paste an interesting part to forward to someone, etc, etc ad nausum.
Re:How Voice Degrades Life Online (Score:1)
Voice Gaming (Score:2)
In this case, a player being away from keyboard (AFK) long enough to miss all of the strategy.
Leeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!!!
Re:Voice Gaming (Score:2)
Some Benefits (Score:1)