Wow. From the article, an example post on the Verge "downloaded 12MB - a little over 7MB in that is JavaScript" and a refresh of the page with things cached still downloaded 8MB again. And key here -- the article HTML content itself was 75k, the rest is ad network Javascript. (apparently over 20 different companies) I don't like tracking scripts either but why can't the ad networks get together and create a shared sc…
Why can't the site just collect some data from the client and forward it to the ad networks on the backend? All of this stuff needs to happen out of band.
Everybody is cooking their own soup and no-one wants to share their toys and sandbox with the other children.
After reading this article, I decided to try reading the verge in a more "limited" browser which doesn't support endless Javascript and too may advanced features: Emacs built in web-browser, or "eww" (that's its name). It's sort of like Lynx or w3m, except you can click things and it shows actual images! You can see it here: http://imgur.com/FqJVB0U You know what? The site and all content loads instantly . It may not…
Links actually has a graphical mode too: http://paste.click/DdkwUx There's even a driver to draw straight to a framebuffer. It can be useful if you're on a box without X or break X and need a browser (which is how I found out about it). I don't actually use it unless I have to, but interesting to know.
A note under Ubuntu: you'll have to install links2 (instead of links), and you may have to change permissions on the fb device to allow your user to write to it, if you don't want to run a browser as root.
After reading this article, I decided to try reading the verge in a more "limited" browser which doesn't support endless Javascript and too may advanced features: Emacs built in web-browser, or "eww" (that's its name). It's sort of like Lynx or w3m, except you can click things and it shows actual images! You can see it here: http://imgur.com/FqJVB0U You know what? The site and all content loads instantly . It may not…
Integrating all those ad networks is unreasonably hard to do well, so it's done badly to save time. All ad-financed web sites have that problem to varying degrees.
These guys (ie Verge) are going to have a really really tough time when iOS9 lands https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releaseno...
This gives app makers the ability to throttle the ads show when using webViews? So FB, Twitter, etc. can render website content without ads? If so, this is a huge deal and needs to be a separate HN post.
This might not work in the webViews but will definitely work in the new Safari View Controller which will most probably become the default way for applications to display links.
Ah, it's that site that's mostly known for posting inaccurate information about Android and closing off comments because people called them out on it. Why would anyone even go there anymore? They haven't published anything worth reading in ages.
Nilay Patel has the audacity to say that the mobile web sucks [0]. No. It's just your website that sucks, mate. [0] - https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/20/9002721/the-mobile-web-su...
He blames mobile browsers for at least half the article (I had to stop reading). Sure, mobile browsers may not be great, but web sites these days seem to be written by people who just don't give a shit. Their hipster attitude is ruining people's experience.
I agree. I've wanted to write my own blog post about the things that suck about Mobile web, it's not the device or the software (typically), it's the way websites are designed (or not) for phones that sucks. You get advertisements that hijack all your screen real estate, open up the Android Market out of nowhere (why do they have this much priviledge? That shouldn't happen on the desktop without asking for permission). There's also the hell of being redirected to a websites "mobile" friendly site, only they redirect you to the home page, not the mobile version of the content you were trying to get to (seriously?) I mean there's so much. I usually have to ask for the desktop version of websites, and this is ignoring JavaScript that jacks up your resources and flash based content. Try triggering OnMouseOver on mobile as well. Lots of warts to browsing the internet on a Mobile phone.
You talk like Apple is doing something new and owns the market.
I haven't seen other mobile browsers support blocking 3rd party content yet. I think that's mainly because Google is the other major phone manufacturer, and their main source of income is that exact 3rd party content. Apple isn't burdened by that - they want to sell phones and keep them the best. Blocking 7 MB of JS that isn't the content the user wants is a good optimization.
Ghostery has its own mobile browser on Android, blocking ads and trackers.
Why can't the site just collect some data from the client and forward it to the ad networks on the backend? All of this stuff needs to happen out of band.
Everybody is cooking their own soup and no-one wants to share their toys and sandbox with the other children.
Sharpers and snake oil salesmen peddling nonsenseware to terrified publishers who watched their entire business model crumble to sand in the face of craigslist.
As a consultant, I only see web site producers making an effort to curb poor web practices when Google forces them to: Google's move to boost mobile-friendly design in the rankings has driven us a TON of responsive design work.
I wonder if that is going to be what it takes to fix today's bloat problems: Google takes the hammer to sites that too much advertising cruft. Otherwise, I don't see business makers seeing much of a reason to fix it on their own.