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The internet is not the web. Many native apps use the internet, precious few use the web. Quick litmus test: if a system does not have URLs, or the content at
by rictic 13y ago
The internet is not the web. Many native apps use the internet, precious few use the web.
Quick litmus test: if a system does not have URLs, or the content at those URLs is not usable by multiple independently developed user agents based on open standards, then the system in question is not the web.
- michaelwww 13y agoAren't native apps just specialized web browsers with the url encapsulated in the settings and not visible? I'm not aware of a shift away from HTTP to some other private protocol. If the billions of smart devices coming online aren't universal web browsers does it matter? The growth of public facing hyper text documents may be in decline, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. The internet is evolving towards more specialization.
- rictic 13y agoIn the same way that a lion is kinda like a horse. Serving private apis out over HTTP is an implementation detail for a native app. If it becomes convenient, they could switch to a different protocol for their RPCs without anyone noticing. That's not the web in any reasonable sense of the world. Without links, it's just not the web. Archive.org can't preserve it, search engines can't search it, you can't reference it effectively in a bug tracker or a blog post or a hacker news thread, or a footnote in an essay, etc.
- michaelwww 13y agoThe things you list would seem to be severe disadvantages. I doubt many would go this route exclusively but have a traditional site in parallel. I guess Google and other search engines will let us know when the number of pages turned up by indexing starts to decline or let us know when general web browser installation starts to fall. I don't see it happening.