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McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

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Re: McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

#21

Post by webdevver »

NaOH wrote: post #2

Previous and related: how come a company founded over 100 years ago has the fastest site - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41883419 - Oct 2024 (15 comments) McMaster-Carr: A refreshingly fast, thoughtful, and well-organized website - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34306793 - Jan 2023 (37 comments) Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34000502 - Dec 2022 (169…

lol for real. weve heard about it quite a lot, actually - infact not a year goes by without someone rediscovering that html can load quite quickly if given the chance.

Re: McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

#24

Post by theandrewbailey »

Back when this was making the rounds several years ago, I was intrigued that they request pages in the background on mouse-over, then swap on click. I decided to do similar on my blog, since my pages are about a dozen kb of HTML, and I aggressively cache things. My blog now feels super fast to navigate through, since I've eliminated a ton of network lag.

https://theandrewbailey.com/

Re: McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

#25

Post by thepuppet33r »

netsharc wrote: post #9
georgefrowny wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they download directly as files, not wrapped in a zip that you have to mess around with before you can put the actual file you need where you want it.

That makes me wonder if "files" is a space that needs (in startup-talk) "distruption": what about a utility that applies rules to files, e.g. if you save a file in the directory unzip-me, it'll be unzipped. Or categorize files, e.g. "this email attachment is related to project A, this download is related to project B", and the utility will take care of them, e.g. by putting them in the correct directories? Since this…

This sort of thing has existed for a while, but it's not picked up in the mainstream for two main reasons (at least based on my anecdotal evidence).

1. The friction between a zipped file and an unzipped file isn't enough to make the majority of users take the time to build out an automation. This is especially true now that in Windows you can open a zip file by double-clicking it, peruse the files, and open them from within the zip into your temp storage. 2. It's a little bit of a security risk. Downloaders are (generally) less vulnerable to side channel attacks, but the unzip software people usually use (7-zip, Window's native utilize, WinRAR) are slightly more vulnerable. This risk goes up with any automation software as a) you aren't auditing what you're actually unzipping, and b) the automation can be compromised.

But if you want to try this out, just search for "auto unzip" software and you'll find plenty of tools. You could also set up a cronjob on your Linux machine to run every so often and just scan a folder for zip files and unzip them automatically, with the option to trigger via alias'd command.

Re: McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

#26

Post by metalman »

https://www.barnstormers.com/

Wana buy a bolt?(aircraft), or a fighter jet?

It's been stable since the internet.

It needs a few scripts for total functionality, but you can look at everything on site with just plain html, and it's fast.Internal search is good.And random external searches for aircraft stuff will land you there.

Re: McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)

#29

Post by throwawaymobule »

jacquesm wrote: post #4

Note they have CAD files for almost all of their products which - in combination with a 3D printer - can come in very handy.

This makes great business sense, since you can fit-test any part and know you're getting the right one before ordering.

IIRC, there's even plugins for some CAD programs to grab models by part number.

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