I know that there are good reasons to abandon animated icons in a taskbar UI-wise. But good reasons never kept people from doing stupid stuff: So why are there no animated taskbar icons at all anymore? Postboxes that wave when they receive a new mail, IM icons that blink when there's a new message, browsers that show alters when something is happening on a website. The only animation there is - in the windows and os x world I know - is the (green) progress bar.
I'm pretty sure once upon a time there were lots and lots of animated taskbar icons. Does anyone have an explanation? Has someone patented this principle? Is there an historical reason? Or is it just that MS and Apple for example enforce a no-noise policy on system wide app displays (=icons)?
(and yes, I've seen Bringing Icons To Life)