The 10 most blocked websites at work start with Facebook. OpenDNS released the list today of websites your employer is mostly likely to ban you from watching at the office.
Facebook: Facebook gets banned by 14.2% of employers. I use it when I need to, but I’ve never understood why anyone would want to spend a whole day there. Then again, there are people who must be my friends who are obviously spending a lot of time there. I’m embarrassed to ask them why.
MySpace: 9.9% of workplaces ban MySpace? I didn’t think anyone old enough to have a job had been on MySpace in years. Are these people violating child labor laws?
YouTube: 8.1% restrict YouTube but plenty of employees legitimately need to use it. They’re posting videos to get new customers. Employees watching videos of ponies grooming kittens 83 consecutive times are probably not focused on getting new customers.
Doubleclick: Only 6.4% of workplaces have protected their computers from Doubleclick. I expect more companies will take this report as a reminder to get rid of their ads.
Twitter: I find Twitter tolerable but would have thought more than the reported 2.3% of workplaces might restrict it.
Ad.yieldmanager: Much like Doubleclick, hopefully this report will increase the 1.9% crackdown.
Redtube: So glad I googled first. It’s porn and comes in at 1.4%.
Limewire: I thought this file sharing program was shut down for violating copyrights. You can still visit the website if you’re not at the 1.3% of companies banning it.
Pornhub and Playboy: Well at least they both make it clear that they sell porn so you don’t go there by accident. They’re each taboo at 1.2% of offices.
None of the websites I visit most even made the list so you can keep watching the BBC or reading “The New York Times” or just about anything but social networking and porn. I confess I had my biggest AHA moment when Michael Scott watched his Netflix videos at the office on “The Office.” I do plan ahead for those tasks where I can watch Netflix or Hulu while working, but it’s actually too frustrating to try to watch any serious movie. “Alfred Hitchcock” and “South Park” reruns are another story.
The important business lesson here may be to ensure that your videos can be found directly on Google. Unless employers start banning Google. But that’s taking blocked websites at the office too far.
Source: OpenDNS
