It's difficult to read text when inane messages are scrolling merrily past the periphery. It's like trying to read James Joyce with Jesus Jones blaring in the background. Thoughtful companies like Web Integration Systems have developed scripts that momentarily disable tickertape displays when the user mouses over a link, enabling URL preview. But even this well-meaning script has the unfortunate drawback of sucking RAM in Netscape, or crashing outright in other browsers. The banners gradually use all available RAM and crash the browser.
Some engineers claim that it still exists in the most current versions.
Netscape officials declined to comment. The most vocal advocate of status-bar banners may be Tomer Shiran, a programmer who is currently writing a book called Learn Advanced JavaScript Programming , due out in February 1997 from Wordware . Some samples of the banners he's created can be found here . But even he concedes that they have serious drawbacks. URL previewing is really a problem when it comes to using such banners.