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Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

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Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#51

What is this for, and what should I do to get on, or off the list?

It looks like something not on this list gets suggested in mobile Safari, but not autocompleted (so on top of the screen it will show as a clickable link, but you will not see the complete url in the address field and be able to just go to it by hitting "enter").

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#52
post #45
post #30

Quoted post unavailable.

This is off topic flame bait.

I think what the OP is getting at is that Apple has a "secret" list of domains that it has approved for suggesting. There's no means by which we can get on to that list. In an open source browser, this list would be public, and assumedly there would be some way of submitting a change request.

All that said, I think this is a little overblown. I doubt many people go to one site over another based on the existence of this list.

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#53
Instead of doing any thoughtful analysis of this list, I'm treating it as a random web ring and clicking through to an eclectic bunch of sites.

Currently on websites starting with 'joe'.

Because Internet entropy is fun. More fun than a recommendation engine.

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#54
post #52
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is off topic flame bait.

I think what the OP is getting at is that Apple has a "secret" list of domains that it has approved for suggesting. There's no means by which we can get on to that list. In an open source browser, this list would be public, and assumedly there would be some way of submitting a change request. All that said, I think this is a little overblown. I doubt many people go to one site over another based on the existence of t…

Darwin is open source and there’s nothing you can do to get your patch in (unless you’re the upstream of a package they include, that is). Apple Podcasts directory is closed source and you can submit your podcast as you wish. Open source and a submission channel a la hstspreload.org are orthogonal. Anyway, this is a generic tangent.

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#55
post #6

Interesting side-note: there are only two *.ai domains on this entire list: 1. "tempo.ai", which doesn't actually resolve 2. "web.ai", an http-only site that looks kind of like a cross between a geocities website and a parked spam page, with the content allegedly last revised almost 20 years ago (2003) I wonder how old this list is.

When I type “web.” it autocompletes to “web.archive.org”, I don’t think this list is up to date at all.

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#57
This is an interesting little example of how "systemic" happens, or can happen.

The list exists initially to support a feature, a utilitarian reason. Then, being in the list has SEO value or some such. The list becomes a legitimacy or authority test. It affects traffic, sales.

Maybe other stuff piggybacks this list. Anyone who needs a list of important domain names uses it. Ordering search results, caching, testing, crawling... More dynamics unrelated to Apple's original purpose.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to treat the list as a relatively unimportant thing... Just a clunky little hack that enables autocomplete. At some point, willfully ignorant of a whole industry of professional services out there promising to get you on list.

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#58
post #3

Anyone know how this list was created or how often it gets updated?

The strangest thing about this list for me is that it contains multiple .onion addresses. It also seems to have been at least somewhat filtered for "objectionable" content (porn etc.).

I assume it must have come from user searches at some point?

Re: Apple's whitelist of the 250k auto-completable domains in iOS

#59
Ugh, I guess that's why the iOS browsers all suck so hard with autocomplete?

I always long for Firefox's url bar, it easily beats everything else since Firefox 2 came out or so. Nowadays you have to un-configure two layers of "let's put a search bar in your URL bar" but then it's still just amazing. Especially compared to google, which obviously doesn't have an incentive to have you skip searching on google.com... and apparently apple doesn't want to you complete just any old urls, but only apple approved ones?! This seems like such a useless kind of (soft, but still) gate-keeping...

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