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Long time end user, at least a decade or so.
I just upgraded to a new hard drive, and upgraded my browser from FF 27 to 42. (Win7 SP1)
I have a default tab on my browser set to Shoutcast/Search.
The format for that page has changed again, and there's even less information being displayed than before.
Years ago, run a search and you'd get the Station Name, Genre, Artist, Song Title, Listeners, Bitrate and More. Sortable by Listeners or whatever.
Now its just Station Name, alphabetically.
And the search by Genre capability has been narrowed to a listing of maybe 20 or 25 very broad genres.
A few months ago, I recall being able to say search within one of a dozen or more different types of Jazz, for example. Yes, the categories weren't always a good match to the station, but it was better than NOTHING.
The result is that as an end user, it has now become impossible to find the kind of music I'm looking for via the search dialog window, given the number of stations out there and the low information display format. I have bookmarked hundreds of stations from past efforts, so I'm not totally without current options. But its not worth the effort now to use the search tool to find potential additions.
Maybe this is a work in progress and something more helpful is being developed. But what I'm seeing is the tool being streamlined to the point where its now useless. And Advanced Search is no better, as the display of results is identical. And without a useful Search tool, all the efforts by those creating stations, working on technical improvements, will come to naught as listeners can't find their way.
I just upgraded to a new hard drive, and upgraded my browser from FF 27 to 42. (Win7 SP1)
I have a default tab on my browser set to Shoutcast/Search.
The format for that page has changed again, and there's even less information being displayed than before.
Years ago, run a search and you'd get the Station Name, Genre, Artist, Song Title, Listeners, Bitrate and More. Sortable by Listeners or whatever.
Now its just Station Name, alphabetically.
And the search by Genre capability has been narrowed to a listing of maybe 20 or 25 very broad genres.
A few months ago, I recall being able to say search within one of a dozen or more different types of Jazz, for example. Yes, the categories weren't always a good match to the station, but it was better than NOTHING.
The result is that as an end user, it has now become impossible to find the kind of music I'm looking for via the search dialog window, given the number of stations out there and the low information display format. I have bookmarked hundreds of stations from past efforts, so I'm not totally without current options. But its not worth the effort now to use the search tool to find potential additions.
Maybe this is a work in progress and something more helpful is being developed. But what I'm seeing is the tool being streamlined to the point where its now useless. And Advanced Search is no better, as the display of results is identical. And without a useful Search tool, all the efforts by those creating stations, working on technical improvements, will come to naught as listeners can't find their way.
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