Have you seen these animated characters on websites that talk to you?

Have you seen the ones whose eyes seem to follow your mouse movements on the page?

Do you think these cause visitor engagement? I just don't know.

I like to skim pages and scan rapidly and the voice and character seem to always be behind what I am looking at or scanning. In other words they are distracting most of the time.

I do think they could be useful if one of the purposes of the site is to entertain the visitor, a character could have a persona that matches well with the content.

How about an Andrew Dice Clay (aging myself a little) character telling you off and calling you names when you visit. Any such character would have to really be well done and updated frequently.

What do you think? Check out one online service where you can get an Animated Spokesperson For Your Blog