Being a writer, I have to go through hundreds of websites daily, scouring for the latest and greatest news in the tech world. However, in today’s digital world, filled with promotions and online adverts, I spend half of my time closing unwanted ads, denying notification alerts, and avoiding newsletter subscriptions on most websites. So, to capture everyone’s experience who surf the internet in today’s world, a Beijing-based developer, Guangyi Li, created a parody website.
Dubbed “How I Experience Web Today”, it is essentially a dysfunctional website that takes you through the everyday journey of a web surfer. It showcases the exact things that one might encounter when trying to read an article online, including pop-up ads, permission to deliver notifications prompts, and the “you are using an Adblocker” prompts.
Now, if you are a regular on the internet, you would know how annoying these things can be when trying to read an article on, say your favorite movie or TV show. On opening the website, there is an almost blank UI of a Google search results page, with the phrase “I searched something” in the text field and a “Then it shows me something” link on the search results page.
When you click the only link on the webpage, it leads you to a parody webpage with cookie settings prompts, ads, notification alerts, and newsletter subscription alerts popping up from everywhere. Underneath all of those, the webpage shows the actual “article I want to read”. You can check out how to disable annoying ads in Chrome via the linked article. It is also possible to disable notification pop-ups in Chrome and stop Google FLoC from tracking your online activity.
Moreover, if you leave the tab, it shows another pop-up message that hilariously encourages you to leave your email for some extra bothering. And if you scroll a bit, another notification of the same kind pops up that also encourages you to submit your email address.
Now, for those wondering, all of these pop-up messages, static and video ads, and notification prompts are a part of a joke and do not lead to anything. The developer simply wanted to showcase the everyday hustle an online reader has to go through to read a single on their favorite topic.
However, if you come to our website to read an article, I am sure you would not be bombarded with these kinds of pop-up messages. So, if you want to read about what’s happening in the tech world, you should visit Beebom right away. On the contrary, if you want to experience the same hustle of an online web surfer, I’d suggest you check out the parody website right now. Also, share any of your funny and bizarre online experiences with us in the comments below.
