5 ms·

> They could have a normal experience that is very similar. Yet, they still serve the non-AMP, ad- and tracker-laden main page that takes 20x as long to load, j

> They could have a normal experience that is very similar. Yet, they still serve the non-AMP, ad- and tracker-laden main page that takes 20x as long to load, jumps around while doing so, and tries to blast you with an autoplaying video that remains stuck to your screen while you scroll. I've never been blasted with an autoplaying video that stays stuck, on my phone. Is this even possible?

sigotirandolas 7y ago
Definitely. It's just an HTML5 video tag with a 'position: fixed' CSS style (plus almost always some JavaScript logic). Here's a very recent link that does it on both my phone and computer: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-no-deal-boris-johnson-local-council-spending-planning-a9037951.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-no-dea... Though I live in a rich country, I used to have "only" 500MB/month of mobile data. I could open many small text/image websites, but open one of those autoplaying videos (which sometimes serve even high definition on small screens) and my mobile data for multiple days is gone in seconds. I can only imagine how worse it must be for people in poor countries.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
  > I can only imagine how worse it must be for people in poor countries. Ironically, much better because they tend to have a much better mobile infrastructure. For example, in India someone pays "less than $3 a month for unlimited free calls. With that he gets 42GB of 4G data, at 1.5GB a day, which he uses for viewing videos and for WhatsApp calls to his family and friends in the state of Bihar" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47537201 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47537201 Even if you multiply that by 4 to account for purchasing power parity (with the US), that's dirt cheap for such a plan.

5 ms·

> They could have a normal experience that is very similar. Yet, they still serve the non-AMP, ad- and tracker-laden main page that takes 20x as long to load, j

by joegahona 7y ago

sigotirandolas 7y ago
Definitely. It's just an HTML5 video tag with a 'position: fixed' CSS style (plus almost always some JavaScript logic). Here's a very recent link that does it on both my phone and computer: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-no-deal-boris-johnson-local-council-spending-planning-a9037951.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-no-dea... Though I live in a rich country, I used to have "only" 500MB/month of mobile data. I could open many small text/image websites, but open one of those autoplaying videos (which sometimes serve even high definition on small screens) and my mobile data for multiple days is gone in seconds. I can only imagine how worse it must be for people in poor countries.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
  > I can only imagine how worse it must be for people in poor countries. Ironically, much better because they tend to have a much better mobile infrastructure. For example, in India someone pays "less than $3 a month for unlimited free calls. With that he gets 42GB of 4G data, at 1.5GB a day, which he uses for viewing videos and for WhatsApp calls to his family and friends in the state of Bihar" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47537201 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47537201 Even if you multiply that by 4 to account for purchasing power parity (with the US), that's dirt cheap for such a plan.