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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

#91

Post by nathan_f77 »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #86

I noticed that tiktok.com is missing, so this list might have been compiled sometime before 2019. I wonder if you could write a script that pinpoints the exact month or even day.

I wrote a script: https://github.com/ndbroadbent/autofill_tld_whitelist_url_ag...

This attempts to scan WHOIS records for random domains in the list and try to find the most recent "registered at" date for a domain.

It's very unreliable. The whois-parser Ruby gem thought that giants.it was created on 2020-11-03 09:00:01, but I checked the record and it looks like it was actually created on 2009-09-28 11:00:43.

It looks like nature-in-art.org.uk was first registered on 21-Jul-2019

I don't know if this would provide any useful information. It would take at least a year for a brand new domain to make it into this list. And I don't know if the "created at" date can be trusted, maybe it gets reset whenever a domain is transferred, or lapses and then gets renewed.

In conclusion, I don't think this idea works at all.

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

#92

Post by Bilal_io »

jafingi wrote: post #19

Ha! This explains why I always get "cookieandkate.com" suggested when I want to visit another site that starts with "cookie". I was extremely frustrated that it suggested that site with higher priotity than the one I actually visit mostly every day. And I had never myself gone to that site. Now I know why...

That's very strange, you'd expect Apple to provide a good UX by suggesting a website from your bookmarks, history and then their list. I wonder whether that's an oversight or an intentional implementation.

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

#93

Post by hiccuphippo »

HellsMaddy wrote: post #77

I'm curious to see how this changes over time, so I threw together a quick repo with a GitHub action to watch the endpoint. https://github.com/b0o/apple-autofill-domains

Interesting! Perhaps it could even post a comment to an issue so people can subscribe to it.

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

#94

Post by blenderdt »

dalbasal wrote: post #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,…

Ok, maybe I am missing something here. The link points to a list Apple is hosting without any context.

Does anyone know why this list is hosted and what it is used for?

Is it even used?

Edit: some 7 year old posts suggest it was used by Spotlight.

I also am a little amazed it loaded and scrolls smooth on Firefox mobile...

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

#95

Post by Forgeties79 »

JimDabell wrote: post #78
black_puppydog wrote: post #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... an…

> Ugh, I guess that's why the iOS browsers all suck so hard with autocomplete? No. Contrary to popular belief, browsers on iOS aren’t all Safari skins. They all use WebKit, but there’s a vast amount of functionality in a web browser that isn’t handled by the rendering engine. This is one example. Non-Safari browsers on iOS are free to use whatever address bar implementation they like. If Firefox on iOS has a crap add…

>No. Contrary to popular belief, browsers on iOS aren’t all Safari skins.

I know some people hate Apple for both good and bad reasons, but it's pretty wild to me people think Apple does this. I mean right out the gate that would be pretty illegal, no?

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

#96

Post by dwighttk »

Bilal_io wrote: post #92
jafingi wrote: post #19

Ha! This explains why I always get "cookieandkate.com" suggested when I want to visit another site that starts with "cookie". I was extremely frustrated that it suggested that site with higher priotity than the one I actually visit mostly every day. And I had never myself gone to that site. Now I know why...

That's very strange, you'd expect Apple to provide a good UX by suggesting a website from your bookmarks, history and then their list. I wonder whether that's an oversight or an intentional implementation.

Safari does use your bookmarks and your history, but at some point the history expires so some sites I go to rarely don’t autocomplete and I add bookmarks when I notice.

Also it sometimes is too slow to pick up that I don’t want to go where it autocompleted, I hit go, then immediately hit back and typed more characters in to get the actual site I wanted. I could go and edit my history, but that process is a little clunky on my phone.

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

#97

Post by HellsMaddy »

hiccuphippo wrote: post #93
HellsMaddy wrote: post #77

I'm curious to see how this changes over time, so I threw together a quick repo with a GitHub action to watch the endpoint. https://github.com/b0o/apple-autofill-domains

Interesting! Perhaps it could even post a comment to an issue so people can subscribe to it.

Good idea! I’ve created an issue[0] that can be subscribed to, I will implement the feature soon.

[0]: https://github.com/b0o/apple-autofill-domains/issues/1

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

#100

Post by [deleted] »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #95
JimDabell wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ugh, I guess that's why the iOS browsers all suck so hard with autocomplete? No. Contrary to popular belief, browsers on iOS aren’t all Safari skins. They all use WebKit, but there’s a vast amount of functionality in a web browser that isn’t handled by the rendering engine. This is one example. Non-Safari browsers on iOS are free to use whatever address bar implementation they like. If Firefox on iOS has a crap add…

>No. Contrary to popular belief, browsers on iOS aren’t all Safari skins. I know some people hate Apple for both good and bad reasons, but it's pretty wild to me people think Apple does this. I mean right out the gate that would be pretty illegal, no?

[deleted]
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