My Man G-Man provides a great study on why people hate audio on websites.  Short and simple, its because most of us visit websites while we’re at work, and there’s no cubicle wall high-enough to block the annoyance of some dumb as hell announcement or song.  (Remember back in ‘95 when it was cool to have a midi play on your site???  Geocities…  shudder.) 

G-Man’s Intro…

About a year ago, I came across something that I thought was rather amusing so I added it to my site.

The CTR plummeted.  We’re no talking a 10% decrease but a 100% decrease.  My earnings dropped literally hundreds of dollars that day.

So what did I add that made my page suddenly do so horribly?

Audio

Yep, that’s right, when the page….  More from G-Man..

 

True, I’m a little biased here because of my hatred of approx. 95% of Flash online, but unless your site is catering to the blind, audio / video noises should be engaged by the user via a play button, not via the browser and bandwidth. 

How about you guys, what are some sites where the instant noise from audio/video is a good thing!?