And that is the unfriendly and/or invasive business practices of many online retailers and web service companies.
If I walk into a brick n' mortars store to buy a candy bar or a bag of bolts, they don't typically ask me to sign up and become a member first before I can buy stuff. Well, there's Sam's Club and CostCo but those are the rare exceptions.
Internet operators, for some strange reason, somehow think it's perfectly fine to subject you to yet another painfully annoying sign-up form. Even if you are just buying some simple little thing.
Further, I've noticed the trend lately to put up a sign-up form or mailing list form as a front gateway. That is: you can't see ANY of their site unless you first give out your email address or contact info. What a load of crap.
What I find most offensive about the whole "sign-up" and "account" thing is the way that personal information eventually gets propagated without your express permission. Check it yourself. Google your name and see how your Amazon.com wishlists, random Facebook activity and other web activity is being automatically indexed and publicized on the web. Not cool. But it is business-as-usual for internet operators. At least on Forums you can use alias names. But on sites such as Amazon.com where the bank card you're paying with should exactly match your account name, an alias is not an option.
With the privacy rollbacks occurring on Facebook lately (and the extremely difficult methods they have for modifying those settings) it seems we're all becoming more aware of our personal info and how it's used. The extreme efficiency of Google's indexing system is adding to this awareness. It is only a matter of time before Google is sued over privacy issues, further defining their liability/responsibility in the matter, if any.
Applying my own personal experience into building the ebmerc store site, I absolutely refused to make any required login/sign-up forms.
When I began making a SAVE THIS SHOPPING SESSION function, I briefly considered adding a login to the site. I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Instead of a login, I made it so that the information (cart items, recently viewed items and pages) could be curled up into a bookmark on the Users browser... A very important distinction. If the info is inside a bookmark on your browser, you can delete it any time.
...and NOT on a database somewhere out in The Ether waiting to get Google-indexed at some time in the future. (Attention Amazon.com, are your ears burning? They should be, I'm talking about you.)
It's a simple little thing, but simple little things like that are an embodiment of my personal beliefs and opinions.
Just trying to make the shopping experience as pleasant as possible.
- andfriend
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