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I miss the days Javascript were only considered a script language for HTML/CSS and we use it for silly things like hover on buttons or simple animations. The w

I miss the days Javascript were only considered a script language for HTML/CSS and we use it for silly things like hover on buttons or simple animations. The whole thing got completely out of control and we lost the transparency of the web. We could open the source, see how it was made and learn some new tricks. The indexers like search engines could index and understand the content only by reading the data and metadata of a site. Now is such a black box, that if you need to index for instance, you will need to use a browser to render the whole page before you or any automated process can understand it. Search engines now need to have ML based image and language recognition just to understand the contents of a site (this is nuts). The free trade of information is much more expensive and the web is turning into a black box day-by-day.. The whole "appization" of the web for which the biggest leader is Google, is leading to the fall of a medium of information that have so much potential. Sorry for the rant, this is not the best place, but i cant see any move that can change the course of this medium serving mostly the big guys, leading to more concentration of power and resources. Thats why i've think the only answer that can turn the table, need to start fresh, because the game the web is in, is already rigged, and i think that it has a lot to do with the design, not just the politics, strategy and the big money.

satyrnein 7y ago
In one telling, if the web had not added the features it did, it would have ceded even more ground to mobile apps, which are even less indexable, linkable, etc.
- hollerith 7y ago
  What that telling leaves out is the fact that the web is also an extremely popular way to distribute documents. When someone finishes writing a manifesto or a fan fiction and considers how to disseminate it, they never respond with, “I know: I’ll distribute my manifesto or fan fiction on the iOS and Android’s app stores.” That greatly reduces the harm done by the lack of indexability and linkability of mobile apps.
- oscargrouch 7y ago
  There are two distinct paths for what the browser/web should become.. more appish like or more like a collection interactive documents. In the end they tried to mix both, but the appish view is eating whats left of the open world of data the web was designed to be. This is the path Google decided it should go.. They have Android if the strong 'app list' contender wins over web and on the other end they can index the web with AI and Chrome whats left to be indexable (making it hard for contenders) and also bloating the browser (with a huge set of API's) making it hard for other players to try other visions for the web that require and can be done with a simple engine. I get it that it had to compete somehow with the app store. But for me, the better option would be to split into two products, each one following one path, but with browsers not following the path that would eventually kill them. I just see a 'dead end' with the web mostly being a framework to be embedded for rich apps(its also a great tech for this end). Thats why im trying something new here.. a different sort of a "browser", but i dont think it can be called that way in the end. I've started a couple of years ago, and im almost in the finish line now.. I hope that i can deliver a platform where information can flow free without leading to centralization and digital monopolies that can choke all the rest, but i cannot know if it will really deliver that, because its not just about the tech..

satyrnein 7y ago

In one telling, if the web had not added the features it did, it would have ceded even more ground to mobile apps, which are even less indexable, linkable, etc.

hollerith 7y ago
What that telling leaves out is the fact that the web is also an extremely popular way to distribute documents. When someone finishes writing a manifesto or a fan fiction and considers how to disseminate it, they never respond with, “I know: I’ll distribute my manifesto or fan fiction on the iOS and Android’s app stores.” That greatly reduces the harm done by the lack of indexability and linkability of mobile apps.
oscargrouch 7y ago
There are two distinct paths for what the browser/web should become.. more appish like or more like a collection interactive documents. In the end they tried to mix both, but the appish view is eating whats left of the open world of data the web was designed to be. This is the path Google decided it should go.. They have Android if the strong 'app list' contender wins over web and on the other end they can index the web with AI and Chrome whats left to be indexable (making it hard for contenders) and also bloating the browser (with a huge set of API's) making it hard for other players to try other visions for the web that require and can be done with a simple engine. I get it that it had to compete somehow with the app store. But for me, the better option would be to split into two products, each one following one path, but with browsers not following the path that would eventually kill them. I just see a 'dead end' with the web mostly being a framework to be embedded for rich apps(its also a great tech for this end). Thats why im trying something new here.. a different sort of a "browser", but i dont think it can be called that way in the end. I've started a couple of years ago, and im almost in the finish line now.. I hope that i can deliver a platform where information can flow free without leading to centralization and digital monopolies that can choke all the rest, but i cannot know if it will really deliver that, because its not just about the tech..