I'd think customizability and security are top concerns, what do you think?
Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
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Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#2no ads in any form
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#3Also, I feel like inspiration from the early web browsers should be taken. Tim Berners-Lee's book "Weaving the Web" fascinated me and I think that we can learn from both the current and the oldest designs of browsers.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#4no ads in any form
I agree, the browser shouldn't contain ads, but an adblocker is also a basically essential extension that many of us use.
Myself included.
It's basically impossible not to these days.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#5When a link is opened in a new tab, that tab should keep the history of the tab it was opened from.
There used to be a Firefox extension for that, but that now doesn't work anymore because of changes in Firefox. Chrome closed a feature request for that with WONTFIX (https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1639).
EDIT: Oh, and also a simple user-friendly way to block autoplay of all audio and video elements. Maybe a "quiet mode" switch or something like that.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#6The reason why I originally switched from Firefox to Chrome was because Chrome was minimalistic and very, very fast - a chrome for the web.
Now I'm seeing Chrome become bloated, and slow. On top of this, it's now trying very hard to identify me by asking me to sign in with my Google account.
I want my next browser to make me forget that I'm using a browser in the first place, and also to not care about my identity.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#7Google Chrome is pretty close. Some extra things I'd like:
* Fully open source, with clear and open licensing.
* Extensions with a permissions system that works at multiple levels of granularity. So I should be able to trust an extension but deny it some specific things (without breaking it.)
* A headless mode, with python/ruby/other bindings, so I can use it as an automation library.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#8Its development should be managed by a group who are not concerned with generating money from advertising/tracking or any other privacy reducing endeavors. A group who put user privacy and security at the forefront of every decision made.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#9Google Chrome is pretty close. Some extra things I'd like: * Fully open source, with clear and open licensing. * Extensions with a permissions system that works at multiple levels of granularity. So I should be able to trust an extension but deny it some specific things (without breaking it.) * A headless mode, with python/ruby/other bindings, so I can use it as an automation library.
1. I totally agree with the open source part. Although I use a closed source OS often in everyday life (OS X, so at least it's a *nix) I'm a big fan of Linux (which I use on the side, and way before Windows) although personally I like the MIT and BSD type licenses over the (L)GPL
2. Granularity is a great thing to have as well. Extensions could maybe be broken into multiple sections, so you could have a- Permission to inject into page 2- permission to access saved passwords c- permission to access local files etc etc etc, and then you could set its local file root or what sites it can run in.
3. A headless browser sounds pretty great but with the nonstandard essence of web design I wonder how one would use it usefully in automation.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#10no ads in any form
I agree, the browser shouldn't contain ads, but an adblocker is also a basically essential extension that many of us use. Myself included. It's basically impossible not to these days.
Nowadays I refuse to fix anyone's computer without installing ad blockers in all installed browsers.
I'd consider it professionally irresonsible to let a non-technical user loose on the web without a good ad blocker. It's just too dangerous out there.