The use of sound on the web, for fun and profit no doubt!

The Web's use of sound

The use of sound on the web has been a somewhat tradgic journey. I remember using the web back in 1996 and people thought it was cool to put annoying midi's and other various beeps and noises. This was usually coupled with horrible web design anyway. Together, flashing colours, rotating gifs and midis from hell provided a VERY unenjoyable web experience.

Today this has somewhat changed. With the advent of broadband connections and exciting multimedia applications like flash, its been possible to incorporate high fidelity audio into websites. And, perhaps the most important feature thats been implemented is the ability to mute sound. No matter how great the background music is and how well it complements the site, eventually, it will get annoying. It should be the users choice as to whether they want to listen to the music or not.

Theres something funny about the satisfication one can get from scaring the crap out of someone through sound on the web. I'm sure everyone has experienced this, you get a mystery link telling you to peer closely at the screen watching for a ghost to appear. Then a picture of the chick from the exorist appears accompanied by a blood curtling scream which is so loud due to you having the volume up from listening to mp3s whilst you work. You jump 3ft out of your chair and swear at the person who sent you the link for the next 15minutes.

Now, unlike Steve I'm going to go have a shower and go to bed whilst he spends the next 2 hours downloading fruity tooty loops as hes been capped already this month. Tee hee hee