Topic awaiting preservation: Odd Surfing Habits

I've noticed some people have the weirdest surfing habits ...

Of course, there are the usual people who double-click absolutely everything, but that's pretty common.

Even stranger are the people here at work who refuse to type anything into the address bar. Instead, they go to Google, type the URL in the search box, then click on the results that come up. One explanation for this practice is that they don't want the cookies. I try to explain that the cookies are planted by the sites when you get to them, but they don't want to hear any of it. Another explanation is that they don't want the IT staff to know where they've been. I try to explain they have a number of ways of finding that out anyway, but they don't care.

Today, I tried to show someone something I was working on, but he wouldn't let me type the address in the address bar because he's got three particular sites listed in the drop-down history and doesn't want to mess that up. He insisted I tell him the name of the page so he could search for it instead, or at least tell me a page he can search for that links to it. But of course, it's a development page and hasn't been spidered, nor is it linked to. So he just wouldn't look at it. All so he wouldn't mess up the three links in his history. And he refuses to use the links bar.

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

oh I feel your pain..

I've also known people who won't use the address bar, but will -every time- click on file->open....

and then there's the mouse-lifters....

File > Open? Dear lord ...

The mouse-lifting thing reminds me of the time I was showing a friend my graphics tablet. He would hold the stylus in this weird, "dainty" way and would keep picking it up, trying to drag the cursor across the screen a bit at a time. He couldn't seem to hold it like a regular pen and just couldn't get that the position on the pad equals the position on the screen.

Oh, yes, and the people who will never use the tab key to move around a form. Type, grab mouse, move, click in next field, type, grab mouse, move, click in next field ...

"You know, you can hit 'tab' to move to the next field."

"I know. I just like to do it this way."

Why?!

LOL
Flaschbacks...

Some years back I did a lot of training in Office and intranet applications.
By far the worst person I had actually lifted his mouse, placed it on the screen and started dragging the cursor...

sigh... some people should not be allowed near a computer.
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

yeah, the type-drag-click-type thing annoys the shit outta me.. along with a girl I know who always 'rightclick>open link's the links on the page....

I can't even watch her to it, it's like a thorn in my mind...


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

mouse-lifters?

I see a lot of people do the google search thing too....very irritating to watch.


Also, at work the computer I use is sometimes shared. By default IE is on here, but I have also added Mozilla.

I get the question "can mozilla get Yahoo too?" about twice a week. =)



[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 10-21-2003).]

Things like these aggrivate me to no extent. If I'm explaining something to someone and I see them doing any of these things, I'll usually

1. Tell them to get the hell out of the way and let me do it.
2. Turn around and walk away.

Just reading the experiences posted here have made me angry...

Those stories are scary.

We've had Ctrl+O addicts in some recent threads.

Few months ago, I did a 2hours session to explain to 2 folks how to use some modules I did on their extranet. Seeing those 2 mouse lifters searching the keys on their keyboard and the fact that kept asking how to do some tasks we had already explained them dozen of times made me doubt about their ability to gain and share any computer related knowledge. Though we made them a rich-text editing tool they kept writting and stylizing their contents in word or excel then copy/pasted them in the editing tool and wondered why it was all messy Jeez!

My parents will soon have a computer ... I wonder if I shouldn't change my phone number.

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

[This message has been edited by poi (edited 10-21-2003).]

my gf. is one of the doubleclickabsolutelyeverythingERS. can't watch that for too long, it makes me sig when someone double clicks a link!

I'm an IT tech and I see a LOAD of people double-click everything, it really irratates me, but if I turned round and mentioned that they didn't have to double-click to open half the stuff I'd be accused of being rude.

And the google thing, I see a load of people doing that, but because of the same reason as above I restrain myself from saying anything.

People who log into W2K and go...

Username: bob*picks up mouse clicks on password field*
Password: bob*picks up mouse and clicks OK"

this applies to web forms too, but it's annoying on the log-in screen too.

</rant>

Frightening as it is to admit it, most people haven't got a clue when it comes to computers.

I consider myself to be an above average user, but I wouldn't personally go so far as to consider myself a guru or wiz or anything like that. Just a common sense approach to the machines themselves, and a desire to learn what they're capable of.

However - many of the folks I come into daily contact with wouldn't know an address bar if it bit them in the ass. They only know exactly the minimum they need to get by in their daily work. Most of them began their internet surfing experiences with AOL and that system encourages finding websites by the search method.

I think I only really "surfed" the web once or twice since I started using computers. Once I learned that the address is the important thing, I only search if I don't know the web address off-hand, or want a selection of sites dealing with a specific topic... But most people don't work that way... It almost feels useless to waste good information on people who insist on not understanding the way things should work...

I'm thinking I need to start charging people for asking me stupid computer questions...


Cell 617

...talk about wasting your time, and bytes.

My Detention Room

If I'm not -absolutely sure- what the address to a site is, and I'm at work, I will look it up on Google each and every time. The last thing I want popping up on screen (and in IT's logs) is some beastiality porno site because I thought I knew what the address was and was wrong, because someone set up a page that sounds legitimate but forwards to somewhere unsuitable for work...



Evil in theory, not so much in practice...

Why do people think that the IT/computer tech. guyz have nothing more interresting to do than checking every sites visited by the users ? All their time is already wasted by people asking them why a client haven't received their email containing a file attach of 50mb, or why they can't use the printer while someone have already sent 1gb of datas in the spooler ....

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

[This message has been edited by poi (edited 10-22-2003).]

I once worked for a person who triple-clicked links. She was often annoyed that a page would load, then instantly go to another page after that. I explained that it was because her clicks were being buffered, and applied to the new page (which would happen to have another link in the same place). All it did was piss her off.

I've even seen professional computer users (not computer professionals) resist new knowledge... like a graphic designer, no doubt an excellent artist but horribly miscast as a computer user, who was meticulously selecting hundreds of like-colored bits of an Illustrator image, one by one, over the source of an hour. I suggested edit >> select >> same fill color, and was rebuffed. Half-hour later, I noticed she was starting over, having accidentally clicked somewhere and lost her selection... thank goodness for freelancing, there are some people I simply wouldn't be able to work with over a long run.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

along with a girl I know who always 'rightclick>open link's the links on the page....

So you're saying she should simply Shift + click I take it?

Edit> Ok, I thought she was trying to Open in New Window. Odd. I wonder why she doesn't just click the link.



[This message has been edited by nootrul (edited 10-22-2003).]

We use a web-based application at my work. Part of my job is to help new employees navigate our system. Here are some of my favorites I've encountered...

-The "click the link and run away" method. Beware! Those pesky mouses bite hard!
-The insistance on typing http:\\ every time they have to type something in the address bar.
-Address bar? What's that?
-We have an online encyclopedia for employees to search to find specific client information. It has a search box. Our search box isn't as intelligent as Google... it only references the one internal database. But for some reason, even though it says Search in pretty blue letters they still think it is the address bar (and are promptly confused when the site they get the "No Data Found" message).
-Double clicking links... It appears there is an epidemic of that out there...
-Wandering pointer syndrome. aka, the compulsive need to constantly move the pointer around while reading a page.

I'm sure there are others... if they come bubbling up from repressed memories, I'll share...

Here's my own odd surfing habit- at least according to one person I know... - I use 'right-click, back' to navigate to previous screens most of the time. Apparantly this is odd because I have a back button on my keyboard.

Oh c'mon Moon Shadow: I'm a constant mouse-pointer wanderer. Mostly a nervous habit.

I also like to keep my mouse relativaly in the middle of the pad, and have a habit of picking it up to reposition it.

Let see though, I get this a lot from family: "Daniel, I need to know how to attach this picture in Outlook Express, you only taught me how to send the other picture."

my favourite has to be the keybaord adventurers...the single finger they use for typing keeps wandering around the keyboard, describing a complicated pattern before they press a key...aha! the key's been found! *press*, rinse, repeat...

Moon Dancer: right-clicking to go Back is understandable since the Back button is on top of the contextual menu. Thus if you don't have a ( or both ) hand on the keyboard or have a high resolution it's easier to right-click, nudge the mouse and click again.

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

I love it when you tell someone to download a file, and they download it, and then they can't figure out for the life of them how to *get at the file they just downloaded*. Even people who have a basic idea of how a file system works. It's just beyond their comprehension that they have to *remember* where they saved the file to.

Oh I have too many stories but in general I do enjoy the reaction when you do soemthing straightforward like use the tab key or type in the address bar and the person reacts like you have just pulled a rabbit out of your ass or demonstrated your amazing powers of invisibility. Far too many times I have heard the equivalent of "whoa there fella back up a bit and slow down and show my that fancy pants trick!!" and not just from new computer users but from people who 'should know better'

Using tab and the address bar are some of the first things I try and cover and I have found that people with movemtn difficulties (e.g. arthritis) are very appreciative of the tab trick and keyboard shortcuts as constantly going back and forth to the top bar is slw and painful. Anyone got a basic trick for first time computer users (I could probably bung them in the FAQ as people do find them useful and they tend to be so basic they drop off the radar).

quote:

---

Even stranger are the people here at work who refuse to type anything into the address bar. Instead, they go to Google, type the URL in the search box, then click on the results that come up.

---

Thanks for explaining this one everyone as it has mystified me for a while - I caught Micahel doing it but he claimed it was from rampant laziness but this helps explain the widespread nature of this.

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org

I once hold a course for senior citizens at my local school when I was 15 years old.
You can imagine the frustration of explaining how to login about 10 times, literally.

I was thinking, I guess you can't blame people for being new to things, you know. But some things are just funny, or weird.

They had a habit of when clicking an OK-button for example, they were about to click but moved the mouse with the click itself and the cursor was dispositioned, causing the cursor not to overlap the OK button anymore. And then they said: "But nothing happens...". And then it comes down to that you sit there and know that it was them who messed up, but you don't wanna say that, because, as has been mentioned, they probably will find rudeness in that. So, you simply put the cursor over the OK button again and say: "There. Try again." Oh, boy. There were times when this was repeated after me helping them, and then I just had to do it myself.

I remember I lost my voice, because I had to shout what they were gonna do, some of them didnt hear very well, because of their age.

This is probably a little bit off the topic, but there was this danish guy in the group who went into toilets in the school and smoked cigarettes =).

So, anyway...
When I'm starting Internet Explorer I have this thing with going to the Start menu(with hotkeys) go to Run... and type in iexplore and hit enter.

I usually use the backspace button as a (back)history-button. Dunno if that's individual settings. And I use the F6 button to get to the address field.

Gotta split, Oh, I am so unbelievably sick of school.

Later

[This message has been edited by Archonian (edited 10-23-2003).]

i still do use the address bar..i just cant help saving anything on my favourites list, i dont want to have a crowded list, you know.

---------------------------
Don't Pick On Me.

I remember the days when my dad was the comp guru and i just knew how to type the name of a gam to access to it back in the dos days.

"dad, i type prehistorik, but nothing happens" (i was on the wrong dir)

i already convinced my mother about using the address bar rather than yahoo! (yup, not even google), so thats a merit.

indeed its funny when people use the mouse for everything, ignoring there is a keyboard that could simplify your clicks even.

"the window with my journal page dissapeared!" "errrm, look in your taskbar for it..."

or when they think those banner pics simulating a windows dialog is tue and even click ok on it.

"i know you are an expert in computer, could you please send me to this site?"

__________________________________


Alevice's Media Library

I train pharmacists on how to use our systems. It would scare you all to know how inept these people are at learning a computer.

And these people are giving you medicine.

:::11oh1:::