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If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages, which would in turn reduce the aggregate costs
by bityard 5y ago
If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages, which would in turn reduce the aggregate costs to run servers, backbone links, and last-mile connections in developing countries and the rural US. Maybe as a nice bonus, we'd get fewer auto-play videos on websites that the browser authors somehow still haven't figured out how to prevent.
Anyway, it would be far from the first time the web browsers have thrown their weight around to effect changes across the whole Internet...
- onion2k 5y agoIf browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages... I wish that was true. The truth is that a lot of developers don't know how to do that work, or that don't care, or (very weirdly in my opinion) are actually proud of the fact they build a huge and bloated app. Moreover though, sometimes those large apps are actually relevant. Having a background video on a brochure site isn't automatically a bad thing - those features can and do drive sales. You might disagree with that about some feature you don't like, but chances are there's some other feature you do like that other people would happily limit because they don't need it. We should be wary of imposing limits on everything because we would lose some things that are actually good for some users. To use a lovely British idiom, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.