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The Verge's web sucks

blog.lmorchard.com

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Re: The Verge's web sucks

#3

Post by danboarder »

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 script instead of so many that seem to be redundant?

Re: The Verge's web sucks

#5

Post by josteink »

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 be beautiful, but it works a hell of a lot better and is just so feather light it feels surreal.

Maybe I'll seriously start using eww for more stuff. This was surprisingly nice.

Re: The Verge's web sucks

#6

Post by thedz »

danboarder wrote: post #3

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…

> I don't like tracking scripts either but why can't the ad networks get together and create a shared script instead of so many that seem to be redundant?

I've asked that myself many times, and I mostly decided that part of the reason is at least partly related to why there were so many browser engines back in the day (Mozilla, IE, Webkit, Opera, etc). Each company thinks they can track something differently/better than another.

Even if ultimately it just lowers the bar for the industry.

Re: The Verge's web sucks

#8

Post by dvh »

After I started working on my own RSS reader, I started converting more and more website to RSS feeds (e.g. twitter, youtube, all news site) where I only extract interesting bits. It's faster and cleaner, not to mension no ads.

Re: The Verge's web sucks

#9

Post by Tiksi »

josteink wrote: post #5

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.

Re: The Verge's web sucks

#10

Post by josteink »

Tiksi wrote: post #9
josteink wrote: post #5

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.

Wow. Nice.

Almost completely related to the discussion at hand: Interesting how much presentation and familiarity affects the cognitive load our mind has to deal with when seeing things.

It took me quite some time to realize that the screenshot you posted was of my own eww image-paste on imgur loaded inside a graphical links-session.

Have an up-vote good sir :)

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