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As others have noted, the issue isn't a lack of ways to build your own website, it is the capture of the web by the likes of facebook, google, apple. It feels
by Edmond 6y ago
As others have noted, the issue isn't a lack of ways to build your own website, it is the capture of the web by the likes of facebook, google, apple.
It feels like a lifetime ago but people forget that one of the things that made myspace so appealing was the ability to "pimp" one's profile page. It was an aesthetic and security disaster but it was also AMAZING.
People who wouldn't know what HTML meant if their lives depended on it were willing to learn the basics in order to personalize their profiles. Then facebook happened.
Even facebook at first was receptive to the idea of some degree of personalizing with facebook apps, but as they grew bigger and powerful it became obvious that total control was the best for their bottom line.
Now people have full blown computers in their pockets all the time and all they can think of doing with them is scrolling down and clicking "like" button. This is great for our "AI" revolution because user interaction/engagement with computers has been dumbed down to its stupidest form thus by comparison the "AI" seems very smart.
- InvisibleUp 6y agoHi, author here. You might enjoy this other article I wrote on this subject: http://invisibleup.com/articles/31/ http://invisibleup.com/articles/31/ It discusses how most people's preferred social spaces recently have moved online into centralized silos, and the effects that has.
- fbelzile 6y agoYou're a very good writer. Thank you for this :) If you had a mailing list, I'd sign up!
- InvisibleUp 6y agoI don't, but my website has an RSS feed you can subscribe to.
- rimliu 6y agoHow did Apple captured the web?
- VWWHFSfQ 6y agoIn a lot of ways Apple dumbed-down the web by forcing people into using app store apps on their ios and mac app store. Also safari is by far the worst web browser in existence and apple forbids anyone to use anything else at least on ios
- hirako2000 6y agoNo, I installed Brave on my partners phone a few days ago. iOS is a calamity nonetheless.
- VWWHFSfQ 6y agowhat engine does brave use on ios
- indymike 6y agoSafari.
- dblohm7 6y agoAll iOS browsers must use Safari’s engine that is already present on the device.
- anonymousab 6y agoAll browsers on iOS are just wrappers around the Safari engine/web view. This lets them add certain features at the app level but they can't modify anything about the web browsing and rendering part, apart from what they can ask Safari to do. Apple wholly and solely decides what a web browser is and can do on iOS. Which is fine for some people.
- raxxorrax 6y agoI am so sorry for KHTML that all its dilapidated children are a disappointment.
- nwienert 6y ago
- ramblerman 6y agoThat last sentiment is quite interesting. The idea that our current recommendation AI is somewhat useful, only because of the simplicity of our dumb choices on the web. Which may also explain why it never works well for books or movies.
- jcelerier 6y ago> The idea that our current recommendation AI is somewhat useful, is it ? I really really hate every recommendation system so far, on shopping websites, on spotify, on netflix... are there people who actually... go along with the flow of what the AI gives them ?
- ramblerman 6y agoThat was sort of the point, for netflix, spotify, things of some substance it doesn't work. But for the neverending facebook feed or "going down a youtube hole", then it does seem to captivate people to spend more time there.
- ckocagil 6y agoIt's very important to remember that Facebook's standardized UI played some role in making it successful. I don't think it would be as successful were it as customizable as MySpace.
- akrymski 6y ago+1 I for one don't long for the days of crappy hard-to-parse pages created by MySpacers and wanna-be web devs on FrontPage. Social media platforms exist because they organize and format information for efficient consumption and discovery. That's the reason they've overtaken Geocities or MySpace.
- breakfastduck 6y agoThat may be true but it depends how you define success. If you define it as effectively destroying non-techy interaction with the wider web & customization then yes it has been a resounding success.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoYou could also define success as enabling many, many people such as my parents who aren't proficient in English or computers and would never be able utilize the internet for communication if it weren't for the standardization offered by Facebook, WhatsApp, Facetime, iOS, etc. Just like 99% of people want cars with an automatic transmission and take it to the mechanic for any issues, 99% of people just want a tool that gets out of their way and lets them achieve the goal. Whether it's driving to their destination or seeing photos or video calling their friends/family. If you asked my parents, their goal never was to create anything on the internet, or browse niche websites and learn their layouts. They're not going to learn it in their advanced years, and perhaps they would rather spend their time on other interests they have such as gardening, cooking, etc.
- breakfastduck 6y agoYeah and that’s totally fair. But success isn’t necessarily a good thing. I’d say Facebook has had an extraordinarily negative influence on the world regardless of its success. Also 99% absolutely do not want an automatic vehicle, I’m assuming you live in the US but it’s not at all like that anywhere else.
- hobby-coder-guy 6y agoHow did Apple capture the web?
- somesortofsystm 6y ago> capture of the web by People have also forgotten how to maintain a filesystem of data and keep it up to date and well organized, themselves, locally. They don't have the patience to have to copy that data to another server to get it published. And they also don't seem to have what it takes on their own local systems (e.g. properly run email tools) that allow them to maintain a social network with ease - i.e. without involving a third party. All of these things are the fault of the operating system vendors, who have fallen asleep at the wheel and sublimated themselves to the web. Now, what if that same OS knew how to talk to other users of the same OS without hassle or fuss, and sync stuff to each other? And then, don't you think by then, that OS would have decent social-media services onboard, which don't require any third party other than actually confirmed friends ... Imagine an OS that allows you to properly maintain a nice timeline of everything you do with your device(s), locally. Its an OS - it'll function without 'the Internet' .. but of course if you plug one in, it'll do all the above. Without needing a corporate sponsorship to do it. tl;dr it's the OS vendors, duh.
- deeg 6y agoI think there's some rose-tinted nostalgia going on with MySpace (which still exists). I remember being assaulted visually and aurally on so many pages that I stopped visiting them. I want there to be sites where people can let their html freak fly but it's not going to make the internet a much better place.
- SV_BubbleTime 6y ago> Now people have full blown computers in their pockets all the time and all they can think of doing with them is scrolling down and clicking "like" button. Despite knowing this... still crazy depressing when I read it.
- tim333 6y ago>...the ability to "pimp" one's profile page. It was an aesthetic and security disaster >all they can think of doing with them is scrolling down and clicking "like" button Probably the majority of users shoot photos and video which can be a higher form of art than the geeky myspace aesthetic disasters were.