Cheapest Linux VPS Home for Cheap Virtual Private Server You may be wondering why this is even a question. If you know anything about HTML5 you should know that there have been some additions to HTML5 to incorporate audio and video into websites. HTML5 has a lot of focus on that and it is one of the primary reasons why you should use HTML5 instead of XHTML 4.0 / 4.1. To really see the benefits and the disappointments in using audio on a website, we need to look at some of the history behind it first.
The Old Days
Back in the old days (not really that old), lets say the mid 1990’s and maybe even all the way into the early 2000’s audio had made its mark in the internet world. At the time, most people were just now learning HTML, so a lot of what you were learning was not the fundamentals and theory behind what makes a good website design, rather, you were just trying to see what all you could do. So many people made the mistake of placing audio on their websites. The problem at the time was that the vast majority of people then, unlike now, were still using dial-up connections. For those that are unfamiliar with them, let’s just say the internet connections and feeling was about 50 times slower than what a lot of people are used to these days.
The end result is that every website that used audio had very slow load times, and the music was usually poorly incorporated. It was the Flash of its era and by most people who visited websites was pretty well disliked across the board in most situations.
The New Days
Nowadays, things have changed. Having a song load is usually very quick, and generally the streaming capabilities of most connections and the computer hardware limitations, you experience very little load time. This is only improving along with technology and we now see just how much audio and video has influenced the internet in recent years with the popularity of YouTube and the incorporation of video and audio content online through the most popular websites such as Facebook.
So, Is audio making a comeback?
I think people are smarter these days about how video and audio needs to be incorporated into websites. It is different than it was. Not everyone needs a song to automatically load and begin playing when people visit the website. However, audio and video to presale a product or service to website visitors is a huge benefit. Having an easy way of doing that is only going to help people who own websites to accomplish what they are hoping to.
I want to reiterate that a website owner should not use audio unless it simply makes sense to do so. The standard rules apply here that most people want to know what a website is about within 7 seconds of typing in the URL and hitting enter. This includes load times. If you are slowing load times in an effort to add audio that doesn’t improve the users overall experience, you are hurting yourself more than helping. If you have web design clients who request this, you may educate them on the reasons behind avoiding doing so.
Also, always make an option for audio to be manually started and a visual prompt to start it rather automatically starting audio. It is frustrating for someone who might be listening to other music or have something else going on through their speakers to visit your website and then automatically have audio blaring through their speakers or headphones. It is often a very distasteful experience and often times people will get a feeling that it lacks professionalism. If it presales copy, they may even feel as though they are being pressured into buying, and it may work against you rather than for you. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you give visual cues to begin audio, not have it automatically begin upon loading the website.
