David over at Perception Analyzer was kind enough to send me a link to a local Oregon site so I could check out what bands are playing while I'm there. How cool is that?
So, he sends me this link with these instructions:
IE only, doesn't work properly with Firefox
Interesting. Even more interesting was the landing page I came to:
What zip code do they want? My home zip code? What does my PA zip have to do with serving me better? Oh, they must want the Portland Zip, so that they can customize my experience (nope, that wasn't it). What about year of birth? What does that have to do with anything? Oh, they might want to know what type of content to present based on my age... (not that I could tell). Gender? What on earth?
This was annoying. As you can tell by the graphic, I didn't enter the info and just clicked the "go to" button. Nope, it wouldn't let me through.
Does this make sense to anyone? I did make it through to the site - and thank you again to David for sending it, truly (this isn't his site, he just sent me the link).
But why do companies put up this kind of barrier between you and your potential customers. If I find something useful, I'm a lot more than willing to enter a little bit of personal information.
What they should have done was allow me to create a list of my favorite clubs, or set reminders on upcoming events - I might even be willing to provide my email address for that.
Jon, it's the FBI. They need to know what types of clubs men from Pennsylvania go to when they are over the age of thirty. SSSHHHH.
Seriously though, you are bang on with this rant. I find these "helpful" sites incredibly annoying and wonder how many people get suckered in to entering their data...I'm horribly uncooperative with phone research surveys, too. :-)
Posted by: Aleah | March 16, 2005 at 08:46 AM
Unfortunately, these sites don't think about readers. They think about advertisers.
And by collecting this info and presenting it to advertisers, they can make a few more bucks.
Posted by: Ankesh Kothari | March 16, 2005 at 11:07 AM
Jon - I hadn't been to this site in awhile before sending you the link. When I went there to be sure it still had the live music info I thought you'd be looking for, I was first frustrated that I had to relaunch the site in IE. Then I hit intrusive info page you reference in your post and like you, I tried to get through w/o entering my info and it wouldn't let me. So, of course, I entered all bogus info just to get through, which serves no one. So, to them, I am a 57 year-old woman who lives in a completely different neighborhood. Let's see what kind of marketing they do with that.
I have no problem with them asking for the info, they just need to make it optional and allow me to get where I want to get without forcing me to conform and while using FIREFOX!
But, in the end, they do have a good live music directory and I guess that's something.
Posted by: David Paull | March 16, 2005 at 11:44 AM
Aleah, LOL!! You're probably right! It's the FBI! Seriously, yeah, not very helpful at all.
Ankesh, Yep, you got it! This isn't to serve us better, it's to serve their income...
David, yeah, it was a great site for finding events, thank you again! A 57 year old woman, huh? LOL!! As I said in the email to you, I found when/where there were bands playing - so at the end, it was a perfect link!
Posted by: Jon Strande | March 16, 2005 at 02:52 PM
I wonder how many marketers fill in those forms truthfully and how many feel annoyed by them, or that they're intrusive?
Posted by: christopher grove | March 17, 2005 at 09:09 AM
Pennlive.com does a similar thing -- in fact, the graphics look nearly identical...
I usually stick in "90210" as my zip. ;)
Posted by: Mike | March 17, 2005 at 08:07 PM
Chris - great question!
Mike - that is so you!! Yeah, I noticed that it looks identical to pennlive.com.
Posted by: Jon Strande | March 18, 2005 at 06:03 AM