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Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

justinribeiro.com

1–10 of 178 posts

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#2
Tiny PWAs and why they don't render until you force refresh on mobile Safari.

Edit: to be slightly less snarky, that was my experience of the linked site - just one long scrolling blank page. This could be a really simple HTML / CSS page. Why do it as a PWA and add more points of failure?

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#3
What happens to your PWA page weight when you add tracking and ads to it?

How do I find your ad-free hobby project in the sea of search results for "speedometer" PWAs on the open web?

What makes sure you will keep paying the, admittedly modest, hosting costs for the app?

I think it's great you can make "tiny PWAs" but I think the article is glossing over the incentives and discovery problem that leads to 30MB ad-infested utility apps on the play store.

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#4
post #2

Tiny PWAs and why they don't render until you force refresh on mobile Safari. Edit: to be slightly less snarky, that was my experience of the linked site - just one long scrolling blank page. This could be a really simple HTML / CSS page. Why do it as a PWA and add more points of failure?

> why do it as a PWA?

Presumably, so that it can be available in his car, when there’s no network access.

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#7
post #3

What happens to your PWA page weight when you add tracking and ads to it? How do I find your ad-free hobby project in the sea of search results for "speedometer" PWAs on the open web? What makes sure you will keep paying the, admittedly modest, hosting costs for the app? I think it's great you can make "tiny PWAs" but I think the article is glossing over the incentives and discovery problem that leads to 30MB ad-infe…

He describes it as an app essentially for his own use - there IS no business model. He’s not going to need to add tracking or ads.

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#9
post #2

Tiny PWAs and why they don't render until you force refresh on mobile Safari. Edit: to be slightly less snarky, that was my experience of the linked site - just one long scrolling blank page. This could be a really simple HTML / CSS page. Why do it as a PWA and add more points of failure?

> why do it as a PWA? Presumably, so that it can be available in his car, when there’s no network access.

I meant the site linked to here - it's done as a PWA when there was no need to, and it fails on first load on mobile Safari for some reason.

Re: Tiny PWAs and why I keep building them

#10
post #3

What happens to your PWA page weight when you add tracking and ads to it? How do I find your ad-free hobby project in the sea of search results for "speedometer" PWAs on the open web? What makes sure you will keep paying the, admittedly modest, hosting costs for the app? I think it's great you can make "tiny PWAs" but I think the article is glossing over the incentives and discovery problem that leads to 30MB ad-infe…

Hosting static content can be done for free. Looks like he's using Firebase, but I believe you could host it on Netlify/Github Pages for $0, since there's no server side work being done.
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