5 ms·

Ask HN: What is the future of browsers?

14 points by skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago

I am trying to understand what features would be in next generation browsers? What would your favourite browsers look like?

fairpx 9y ago
I think the best part of the browser are the extensions and plugins people make.
imaginenore 9y ago
Browsers seem to be converging. It's quite obvious that they will all implement next JS standards, with some experiments here and there. They will add API access to more hardware like VR helmets, controllers, maybe even USB devices (which would be great for web hardware based security, like 2FA). Probably voice control and typing (like on Android). Probably automatic translation (not just by Google). Built-in free VPN (limited obviously) and TOR would be nice.
NikolaeVarius 9y ago
I would love a browser that didn't take 100mb of memory per tab. Though I'm not sure how much of that is to blame on the browser/plugins or the webpage.
maxk42 9y ago
WebAsm
dabockster 9y ago
Hopefully there will be more browsers/engines than just 2-3 large ones. I know that will make web dev difficult, but it will encourage the most innovation online. I'm sick of having to choose between either Firefox, Edge, or a thousand Chrome knockoffs. There needs to be more diversity.
TomMarius 9y ago
I would love a way to ditch HTMl/CSS and use a thin abstraction on top of native GUI toolkits (WinAPI, Qt, Gtk, Cocoa...) instead.
- skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago
  This is indeed a great idea but the only problem is that these frameworks may not fit today's responsive needs
trentmb 9y ago
Accessibility
srcmap 9y ago
Love to the Servo from Mozilla take over the world soon.
erikpukinskis 9y ago
To some extent, you can look at mobile app platforms for guidance: - identity service - payment services - 3D positioning data, including 6DOF - hand tracking and object tracking (AR) In terms of future-y stuff, I can see some sort of blockchain integration, like CloudStorage as an IPFS version of LocalStorage. That would potentially need to dovetail with the identity and payment stuff. I suspect as we get deeper into AR times, some kind of device-relative geo services will need to be necessary. Like, give me a list of services that are within 1 foot, 20 feet, and 1000 feet respectively. Personally, I also think the browser is ready to make the leap to a kind of raw metal relationship with hardware. ChromeOS is an example of this, Firefox OS was an attempt. I'd like to see more specialized OS's that can boot hardware directly to the web. The security models on Mac and Windows are slowly approaching something more like the web anyway, where apps run in a sandbox. Web pages have been doing that forever, so it seems like a good fit for a security-conscious OS. A mobile headset would be a good opportunity for such an OS to differentiate itself. Which leads me to... The other huge opportunity I think is in web "filters". We've gotten to the point now that there's just a lot of crap out there, and with ad blockers and readability filters we've started to dabble in a meta layer. I think a future web browser will go full meta, where by default you don't see the actual web page, you see a thumbnail and a bunch of views on the data in that web page, and you only dip down into the giant messy interactive ad-riddled view if you want to. Past endeavors include the whole space of web annotation, semantic web, etc. Not sure why none of that has taken off, but seems like something that will find product market fit eventually. One of those "filters" could be an AR filter. Take a web page and map it into AR space. Also VR. Add avatars of other people around the content. But there should be a whole marketplace of filters, language translation, low power filter, etc. Opera was doing some version of that. You could have political filters too. "Block all misogyny", "Add Fox News' take", "Keep everything tidy and German" etc. A lot of this marks a general transition from a site POV to a user POV for the browser. If anyone wants consultation on any of these ideas, I'm available for hire. :)
- skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago
  grat ideas. Although I like this the most >The other huge opportunity I think is in web "filters". We've gotten to the point now that there's just a lot of crap out there, and with ad blockers and readability filters we've started to dabble in a meta layer. I think a future web browser will go full meta, where by default you don't see the actual web page, you see a thumbnail and a bunch of views on the data in that web page, and you only dip down into the giant messy interactive ad-riddled view if you want to. The web browser is the only one who knows how much time I spend on each webpage and what I like inside each page. so it can optimize for that.
osrec 9y ago
I think the main browsers will continue to dominate (it's tough work to launch and maintain a browser, so there's a high bar to entry). I feel native features will continue to be exposed via the browser, and eventually, I can see web apps eventually replacing their native counterparts. I am personally a big fan of web apps, and prefer them to native downloads that highjack my phone or computer - browsers just need to be careful to manage permissions to intrusive APIs in a sensible manner.
llccbb 9y ago
I have been enjoying using selenium as a programmatic interface with the browser. Hopefully more of that!
jlebrech 9y ago
a web os, basically a browser will be something like android but without needing to download an app first.
csense 9y ago
My favorite browser? Ability to set ceiling for memory usage and bandwidth per tab. It has traditional boxy 1990's style design, a traditional File, Edit, etc., none of this hamburger menu crap. It suspends or kills background tabs. An empty browser uses 1MB of memory or less. A full browser never uses more than 256MB of memory. In addition to JavaScript, it supports a compiled language out of the box, like Java, but open source, secure, and non-bloated. It has "skinny goggles" which let you trim the fat from webpages, removing unnecessary CPU, bandwidth and memory usage while keeping the site readable. Audio and video content is blocked in each tab until you specifically allow it.

14 points by skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago

I am trying to understand what features would be in next generation browsers? What would your favourite browsers look like?

fairpx 9y ago

I think the best part of the browser are the extensions and plugins people make.

imaginenore 9y ago

Browsers seem to be converging. It's quite obvious that they will all implement next JS standards, with some experiments here and there. They will add API access to more hardware like VR helmets, controllers, maybe even USB devices (which would be great for web hardware based security, like 2FA). Probably voice control and typing (like on Android). Probably automatic translation (not just by Google). Built-in free VPN (limited obviously) and TOR would be nice.

NikolaeVarius 9y ago

I would love a browser that didn't take 100mb of memory per tab. Though I'm not sure how much of that is to blame on the browser/plugins or the webpage.

maxk42 9y ago

WebAsm

dabockster 9y ago

Hopefully there will be more browsers/engines than just 2-3 large ones. I know that will make web dev difficult, but it will encourage the most innovation online. I'm sick of having to choose between either Firefox, Edge, or a thousand Chrome knockoffs. There needs to be more diversity.

TomMarius 9y ago

I would love a way to ditch HTMl/CSS and use a thin abstraction on top of native GUI toolkits (WinAPI, Qt, Gtk, Cocoa...) instead.

skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago
This is indeed a great idea but the only problem is that these frameworks may not fit today's responsive needs

trentmb 9y ago

Accessibility

srcmap 9y ago

Love to the Servo from Mozilla take over the world soon.

erikpukinskis 9y ago

To some extent, you can look at mobile app platforms for guidance: - identity service - payment services - 3D positioning data, including 6DOF - hand tracking and object tracking (AR) In terms of future-y stuff, I can see some sort of blockchain integration, like CloudStorage as an IPFS version of LocalStorage. That would potentially need to dovetail with the identity and payment stuff. I suspect as we get deeper into AR times, some kind of device-relative geo services will need to be necessary. Like, give me a list of services that are within 1 foot, 20 feet, and 1000 feet respectively. Personally, I also think the browser is ready to make the leap to a kind of raw metal relationship with hardware. ChromeOS is an example of this, Firefox OS was an attempt. I'd like to see more specialized OS's that can boot hardware directly to the web. The security models on Mac and Windows are slowly approaching something more like the web anyway, where apps run in a sandbox. Web pages have been doing that forever, so it seems like a good fit for a security-conscious OS. A mobile headset would be a good opportunity for such an OS to differentiate itself. Which leads me to... The other huge opportunity I think is in web "filters". We've gotten to the point now that there's just a lot of crap out there, and with ad blockers and readability filters we've started to dabble in a meta layer. I think a future web browser will go full meta, where by default you don't see the actual web page, you see a thumbnail and a bunch of views on the data in that web page, and you only dip down into the giant messy interactive ad-riddled view if you want to. Past endeavors include the whole space of web annotation, semantic web, etc. Not sure why none of that has taken off, but seems like something that will find product market fit eventually. One of those "filters" could be an AR filter. Take a web page and map it into AR space. Also VR. Add avatars of other people around the content. But there should be a whole marketplace of filters, language translation, low power filter, etc. Opera was doing some version of that. You could have political filters too. "Block all misogyny", "Add Fox News' take", "Keep everything tidy and German" etc. A lot of this marks a general transition from a site POV to a user POV for the browser. If anyone wants consultation on any of these ideas, I'm available for hire. :)

skdjksjdksjdk 9y ago
grat ideas. Although I like this the most >The other huge opportunity I think is in web "filters". We've gotten to the point now that there's just a lot of crap out there, and with ad blockers and readability filters we've started to dabble in a meta layer. I think a future web browser will go full meta, where by default you don't see the actual web page, you see a thumbnail and a bunch of views on the data in that web page, and you only dip down into the giant messy interactive ad-riddled view if you want to. The web browser is the only one who knows how much time I spend on each webpage and what I like inside each page. so it can optimize for that.

osrec 9y ago

I think the main browsers will continue to dominate (it's tough work to launch and maintain a browser, so there's a high bar to entry). I feel native features will continue to be exposed via the browser, and eventually, I can see web apps eventually replacing their native counterparts. I am personally a big fan of web apps, and prefer them to native downloads that highjack my phone or computer - browsers just need to be careful to manage permissions to intrusive APIs in a sensible manner.

llccbb 9y ago

I have been enjoying using selenium as a programmatic interface with the browser. Hopefully more of that!

jlebrech 9y ago

a web os, basically a browser will be something like android but without needing to download an app first.

csense 9y ago

My favorite browser? Ability to set ceiling for memory usage and bandwidth per tab. It has traditional boxy 1990's style design, a traditional File, Edit, etc., none of this hamburger menu crap. It suspends or kills background tabs. An empty browser uses 1MB of memory or less. A full browser never uses more than 256MB of memory. In addition to JavaScript, it supports a compiled language out of the box, like Java, but open source, secure, and non-bloated. It has "skinny goggles" which let you trim the fat from webpages, removing unnecessary CPU, bandwidth and memory usage while keeping the site readable. Audio and video content is blocked in each tab until you specifically allow it.