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Why can't Google leave things alone

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    noise747noise747 Posts: 30,857
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    flagpole wrote: »
    me either but then when you see the old versions of it
    http://web.archive.org/web/20041115033109/http://news.bbc.co.uk/

    it becomes obvious that it had to change.

    Why? i gave the info people wants and did not try and start a video when ever you change to a different story.

    I don't use the main BBc site and have not done so since they changed the look of it, i do use their news site, but I use flash block.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    noise747 wrote: »
    Why? i gave the info people wants and did not try and start a video when ever you change to a different story.

    I don't use the main BBc site and have not done so since they changed the look of it, i do use their news site, but I use flash block.

    So you block all flash videos on the internet? If so, why?
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    flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    noise747 wrote: »
    Why? i gave the info people wants and did not try and start a video when ever you change to a different story.

    I don't use the main BBc site and have not done so since they changed the look of it, i do use their news site, but I use flash block.

    bbc website does not start a video on every page until you click play.
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    noise747noise747 Posts: 30,857
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    zx50 wrote: »
    So you block all flash videos on the internet? If so, why?

    Because they are a pain, some will start playing as soon as you enter their website, including audio. some like this site, uses them for adverts and you put the mouse pointer in the wrong place and you end up with a screen full of video.

    So yes, flash is blocked on every site I visit unless i click ont he place holder to unblock it.
    flagpole wrote: »
    bbc website does not start a video on every page until you click play.
    Not every page i admit, but they used to have it on a fair few. I am not sure how often now as I always use flash block.

    Flash is fine, the problem is, too many sites use it too often. i am dreading when they start to use HTML5 to do the same thing and there is no way to block it.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    The BBC site has reduced its flash content to very little now over the last six months, so not an issue anymore.
    I never really liked the change from the personalised bbc homepage to the newer one, but do not use it much now anyway.
    The bbc sport site was the killer for me, the change was just messy, cramped and unusable.
    Found plenty of alternatives now along with many dedicated apps.

    Back to the google homepage change, I just search from the browser address bar.
    I'm always amazed how many people who have google as their homepage and use it for searching still, I think to give them that comforting friendly feeling.
    I love it when a user says 'My google isnt working' and what they really mean is that firefox, chrome, safari etc cannot connect to the internet and they do not see the colourful google logo search homepage.
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    neo_walesneo_wales Posts: 13,625
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    I can't see what the fuss is about. Google is still very straight forward to use and I much prefer it to the likes of Yahoo.
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    Magic CottageMagic Cottage Posts: 2,698
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    lettice wrote: »
    The BBC site has reduced its flash content to very little now over the last six months, so not an issue anymore.
    I never really liked the change from the personalised bbc homepage to the newer one, but do not use it much now anyway.
    The bbc sport site was the killer for me, the change was just messy, cramped and unusable.
    Found plenty of alternatives now along with many dedicated apps.

    Back to the google homepage change, I just search from the browser address bar.
    I'm always amazed how many people who have google as their homepage and use it for searching still, I think to give them that comforting friendly feeling.
    I love it when a user says 'My google isnt working' and what they really mean is that firefox, chrome, safari etc cannot connect to the internet and they do not see the colourful google logo search homepage.

    Surely every video on the BBC website is flash. Certainly a pain on an Android tablet with jellybean because flash has been officially abandoned.
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    chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    Surely every video on the BBC website is flash.

    no, every video on the bbc website it NOT flash.
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    Magic CottageMagic Cottage Posts: 2,698
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    chenks wrote: »
    no, every video on the bbc website it NOT flash.

    So why is it then that as soon as I try to play a video I get an error telling me I have an incorrect version of flash installed?
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    noise747noise747 Posts: 30,857
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    lettice wrote: »
    The BBC site has reduced its flash content to very little now over the last six months, so not an issue anymore.
    I never really liked the change from the personalised bbc homepage to the newer one, but do not use it much now anyway.
    The bbc sport site was the killer for me, the change was just messy, cramped and unusable.
    Found plenty of alternatives now along with many dedicated apps.

    As i said, I only use the BBc news channel and only for a quick look, most now I use is CNN. i have not been into the sport part of BBc, since i gave up watching TV.

    Back to the google homepage change, I just search from the browser address bar.

    That is what I do as well, it is linked to duck duck go, not google.
    I'm always amazed how many people who have google as their homepage and use it for searching still, I think to give them that comforting friendly feeling.


    A mate of mine will not search via the address bar or the search bar in firefox, he always go to the search engine page, which is in his case the same one as I use. i don't know why, ok I got a idea why. He thinks the info is going back to firefox if he does it that way .

    I have no home page on my browser.
    I love it when a user says 'My google isnt working' and what they really mean is that firefox, chrome, safari etc cannot connect to the internet and they do not see the colourful google logo search homepage.


    Or, they think the IE icon is the internet.

    i must admit I have not seen the google search page for a long time. the only time I acess google is for the calendar or contacts on Gmail and I got links to take me directly to them.
    I do access you tube, but that is almost separate, even if google are trying to force people to link it with their google account.
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    flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    noise747 wrote: »
    Not every page i admit, but they used to have it on a fair few. I am not sure how often now as I always use flash block.

    Flash is fine, the problem is, too many sites use it too often. i am dreading when they start to use HTML5 to do the same thing and there is no way to block it.
    i browse the bbc news all day and i have never seen a video that played by itself. the place holder is also flash which maybe why you think you're blocking flash video.

    it would be trivial to write a greasemonkey script for firefox, or for chrome that removed the video tags from html5. with a little more work you could have a hot key to re-enable them.
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    stu0rtstu0rt Posts: 946
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    Google was one of the first (if not the first) companies to adopt a "mobile first" design philosophy, since mobile platforms now make up an enormous percentage of web usage. It means all their designs are made to work on mobile devices first, then, if necessary, they are adapted to work on larger screens/desktops.

    The most obvious design change is that it's not possible to 'hover' over things on a touchscreen, so that has an effect on how dynamic menus work, and so on.
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    pburke90pburke90 Posts: 14,758
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    I remember when the black tool bar was added, I hated it. Now I'm used to it. If it goes, it'll be an inconvenience, but I'll get used to it not being there again. No big deal. The sites I want to go to, including YouTube, Mail etc. are saved in my favourites anyway.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    flagpole wrote: »
    i browse the bbc news all day and i have never seen a video that played by itself. the place holder is also flash which maybe why you think you're blocking flash video.

    it would be trivial to write a greasemonkey script for firefox, or for chrome that removed the video tags from html5. with a little more work you could have a hot key to re-enable them.

    Same here. Every video on the BBC website that's played for me is always one that I've clicked on myself.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    Paddy C wrote: »
    I remember when the black tool bar was added, I hated it. Now I'm used to it. If it goes, it'll be an inconvenience, but I'll get used to it not being there again. No big deal. The sites I want to go to, including YouTube, Mail etc. are saved in my favourites anyway.

    Yeah, the favourites bar saves so much more time than having to type even a quarter of the name into a search engine (if that prediction thing is enabled).
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    LION8TIGERLION8TIGER Posts: 8,484
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    I've been using https://encrypted.google.com/ since someone left a link on here for it, mainly to stop the flash animations that Google sometimes put on the page and cripple my old pc.
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    noise747noise747 Posts: 30,857
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    flagpole wrote: »
    i browse the bbc news all day and i have never seen a video that played by itself. the place holder is also flash which maybe why you think you're blocking flash video.

    It have done in the past, as I said it may not happen now.
    Why would they use a flash place holder if the video is not flash?
    it would be trivial to write a greasemonkey script for firefox, or for chrome that removed the video tags from html5. with a little more work you could have a hot key to re-enable them.

    Maybe it is for some people.
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    mrprossermrprosser Posts: 2,283
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    Changes like this happen, however I do wish they would put the radio button for 'only search pages from the UK' back under the search box, rather than bury it in a menu
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    alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
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    mrprosser wrote: »
    Changes like this happen, however I do wish they would put the radio button for 'only search pages from the UK' back under the search box, rather than bury it in a menu

    If you use the google.co.uk page does it not default to UK sites though now?
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    mac2708mac2708 Posts: 3,349
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    alan1302 wrote: »
    If you use the google.co.uk page does it not default to UK sites though now?

    No,
    If you want UK sites only you have to select
    Search Tools>Any Country>Pages from the UK
    Even then US sites appear in the results
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,341
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    Youtube're a lot worse.
    FFS, I don't want to give my email address and be faced with messing about when I log in.
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    lucky67lucky67 Posts: 77
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    I'm with you on You tube ...I have a hotmail email address I have used for years (at least 15yrs - maybe more) which isn't my full name...it forwards onto my google email address - which I rarely give out - even to friends etc - which is my full real name ....
    (This gives me two junk filters and also my google e-mail as it isn't widely known - less likely to get hacked - my hotmail account contains no contacts or mail)
    I don't give that e-mail address out and I don't want my you tube account to use that address/my full name.
    I rarely use you tube anyway ...it hated the fact it was linked to a hotmail account - caused me all kinds of problems - in fact my main account is called something like 'just get lost' - as I was so frustrated with it - (would have been ruder but aware I post eg christmas messages to my parents from my children on there!)
    Every so often if I visit You tube I get a pop up to tell me to change to my google name etc....let me make this clear google/you tube - no I don't want to change it - it is as it is for a reason now will you p*ss off ...
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    flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
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    alan1302 wrote: »
    If you use the google.co.uk page does it not default to UK sites though now?

    they've dropped it because it is no longer necessary.

    the search algorithms are smarter. they know that if you are searching for some things you don't care where the sites are located and some things you do.

    your results are different if you are in the UK than elsewhere.

    if you go search for iPod for example the wikipedia page it shows is international, but the retailers and the version of the apple site are UK.

    if you search for some kind of porn genre the sites are all international.
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    LION8TIGERLION8TIGER Posts: 8,484
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    Because I use a .com Google page I have to search ' iPod UK '
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,078
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    The new layout is shit, isn't it? :)
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