4 ms·

What I would like is an open source browser that autorecords all my non incognito browsing history, including videos, etc within a transparent database / file f

What I would like is an open source browser that autorecords all my non incognito browsing history, including videos, etc within a transparent database / file format. Even with Google, I often have problems finding interesting things that I've read in the past. How it would work: For each page, any time the DOM changes, that is saved as a revision of the document. This way, I can get back to any state of a website without javascript complexity by browsing the revision list. Bookmarks / Favorites would still be useful for saving notable stuff, and ideally there would be a powerful data management facilities for search (eg. Solr), deletion and merging datasets. A future project, perhaps...

otakucode 12y ago
I've wanted a similar thing for a very long time. In effect, an infinite web browser that remembers everything. Rather than 'surfing' the web it would be more like mapping it out and exploring it, with more than just your memory to return to. I like the idea of a vertical tab bar on the side, and I think if the user interface were done right, one where the tabs of things which interest you never actually 'close' (closing a tab would be equivalent to dismissing something as irrelevant or uninteresting) but the list of tabs just continues growing, scrolling off the top of the screen but recallable (and searchable) at a moments notice. It would be major rethinking of how a browser works and what it does and it would possibly get confusing with things like web apps (shoehorning applications into a document presentation system bites us again). I imagine lots of people would presume a proposal like this, keeping everything you ever browse or at least a very significant subset of it, as slightly insane... but that just makes it more alluring to me.
- walterbell 12y ago
  Would you be willing to run a dedicated home server+storage for this purpose, e.g. Dell T20 or Lenovo TS140 ($300) + 4-6 disks in RAID1 config? It could run ESXi / KVM / Xen, e.g. FreeNAS in one VM, knowledge base in another. For UI prototyping, some options are Qt/Webkit, a browser extension, or http://breach.cc/ http://breach.cc/
- innguest 12y ago
  Yes, this. When I say I regularly accumulate close to 1000 open tabs on Firefox (I use the Tree Style Tab plugin to put them on a column to the left) people think I'm crazy, but I just think it's a better way to recall what I was doing and go back and position myself in time with regards to what I was reading and what I will read next. In my mind, I should only close tabs I want nothing to do with, and I keep open the stuff I'd like to revisit at some point. The fact that Firefox keeps open pages in memory is incidental and I don't let it affect my flow. Every day I crash my Firefox and reopen it with the 1000 tabs again (that's the only way to make Firefox understand I want the tabs loaded, not the content) to keep on browsing as keeping it open for long stresses the GC (I assume) making it sluggish to use. So yes, I think you and I see "surfing the web" in a different way. I've tried organizing myself with Bookmarks (but then you get lost in folders and categorizing), Pinboard (but I never go there to search for things), Evernote (I never search there either) and so on. Those solutions are not natural to me. If something is not in front of my face, I'll forget it. That's why I want to have a running collection of all the tabs/pages/notes I care about and it should be there at all times, organizable like the plugin I mentioned, but without taking RAM. Here's an interesting article by a philosopher I enjoy. He argues you and I are "horizontal organizers": http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization_port.php http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization_...
hugogee 12y ago
I dont know about all the other items on the wishlist but you might be able to find what you were doing/watching when. https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy
yellow_and_gray 12y ago
Wasn't WebMynd (now trigger.io) trying to do this? A Tivo for the web. https://www.linkedin.com/company/webmynd-corp https://www.linkedin.com/company/webmynd-corp http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/webmynd/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/webmynd/

otakucode 12y ago

I've wanted a similar thing for a very long time. In effect, an infinite web browser that remembers everything. Rather than 'surfing' the web it would be more like mapping it out and exploring it, with more than just your memory to return to. I like the idea of a vertical tab bar on the side, and I think if the user interface were done right, one where the tabs of things which interest you never actually 'close' (closing a tab would be equivalent to dismissing something as irrelevant or uninteresting) but the list of tabs just continues growing, scrolling off the top of the screen but recallable (and searchable) at a moments notice. It would be major rethinking of how a browser works and what it does and it would possibly get confusing with things like web apps (shoehorning applications into a document presentation system bites us again). I imagine lots of people would presume a proposal like this, keeping everything you ever browse or at least a very significant subset of it, as slightly insane... but that just makes it more alluring to me.

walterbell 12y ago
Would you be willing to run a dedicated home server+storage for this purpose, e.g. Dell T20 or Lenovo TS140 ($300) + 4-6 disks in RAID1 config? It could run ESXi / KVM / Xen, e.g. FreeNAS in one VM, knowledge base in another. For UI prototyping, some options are Qt/Webkit, a browser extension, or http://breach.cc/ http://breach.cc/
innguest 12y ago
Yes, this. When I say I regularly accumulate close to 1000 open tabs on Firefox (I use the Tree Style Tab plugin to put them on a column to the left) people think I'm crazy, but I just think it's a better way to recall what I was doing and go back and position myself in time with regards to what I was reading and what I will read next. In my mind, I should only close tabs I want nothing to do with, and I keep open the stuff I'd like to revisit at some point. The fact that Firefox keeps open pages in memory is incidental and I don't let it affect my flow. Every day I crash my Firefox and reopen it with the 1000 tabs again (that's the only way to make Firefox understand I want the tabs loaded, not the content) to keep on browsing as keeping it open for long stresses the GC (I assume) making it sluggish to use. So yes, I think you and I see "surfing the web" in a different way. I've tried organizing myself with Bookmarks (but then you get lost in folders and categorizing), Pinboard (but I never go there to search for things), Evernote (I never search there either) and so on. Those solutions are not natural to me. If something is not in front of my face, I'll forget it. That's why I want to have a running collection of all the tabs/pages/notes I care about and it should be there at all times, organizable like the plugin I mentioned, but without taking RAM. Here's an interesting article by a philosopher I enjoy. He argues you and I are "horizontal organizers": http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization_port.php http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization_...

hugogee 12y ago

I dont know about all the other items on the wishlist but you might be able to find what you were doing/watching when. https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy

yellow_and_gray 12y ago

Wasn't WebMynd (now trigger.io) trying to do this? A Tivo for the web. https://www.linkedin.com/company/webmynd-corp https://www.linkedin.com/company/webmynd-corp http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/webmynd/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/webmynd/