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Components will kill pages

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Re: Components will kill pages

#11

Post by lima »

Multicomp wrote: post #2

AI component libraries in your site make your web app even more easily consumed and subsumed by AI chat clients. This not only kills pages, but it kills the concept of a browser where the user agent is a human, rather than making your pages be designed where the user agent is an AI agent. That doesn't make me happy to experience because I'm guessing that after a generation or so, web designers will not only do mobile…

> AI first websites will get so popular that browsing sites manually will look like trying to use a text only browser in the JavaScript world.

That might be great for accessibility, though.

Re: Components will kill pages

#12

Post by 0907 »

I think that the inverse thesis is true, you make websites more accessible (a11y, wgac, aria labels etc) for humans, then the interaction heuristics are clearer for agents functioning off browser-use or similar. If a screen reader can understand your site, then an agent can. Reinventing the wheel to facilitate the current state of agents makes the web worse for everyone, it's not a preemptive move, it's actually a decline in almost objective and measurable quality, and potentially one which removes access to the internet by people who just want to.. use the internet.

Re: Components will kill pages

#13

Post by thinkingkong »

Theres probably a middle ground where we allow an app to augment / enhance itself using deterministic behaviour but a user based soft request. If I as a user can ask for a feature, and have it work just for me, thats pretty cool.

Instead of progressive enhancement it can be progressive evolution.

Re: Components will kill pages

#15

Post by CuriouslyC »

0907 wrote: post #12

I think that the inverse thesis is true, you make websites more accessible (a11y, wgac, aria labels etc) for humans, then the interaction heuristics are clearer for agents functioning off browser-use or similar. If a screen reader can understand your site, then an agent can. Reinventing the wheel to facilitate the current state of agents makes the web worse for everyone, it's not a preemptive move, it's actually a de…

This. The accessibility tree is a superpower for agents when it's good. Screenshots are "robust" but low performance. Like so many other things, making stuff better for humans indirectly makes it better for agents.

Re: Components will kill pages

#16

Post by CuriouslyC »

gassi wrote: post #7

> In a world where we can type anything into a text box and get the information back instantly we are circumventing the need to visit websites altogether. This is purely anecdotal, but the only people in my extended circle making this transition (to any extent) are the technically savvy; everyone else is slowly realizing how awful AI tools and "AI-first experiences" can be and are actively trying to avoid them.

AI in apps is garbage. Cheap, low quality models and inflexible interaction patterns.

AI agents using frontier models, configured nicely, that interact with programs that have APIs are pure gold.

Re: Components will kill pages

#17

Post by phippsytech »

I think the more realistic direction is exposing API / MCP-style interfaces for agents to interact with a product’s functionality, rather than shipping UI components that an AI client would render.

The "AI renders your components inside chat" idea feels very similar to Facebook’s old canvas apps. That model disappeared for good reasons: abuse, security, and loss of platform control.

It seems far more likely that AI platforms will provide their own interaction primitives (forms, pickers, confirmations, etc.) and simply call third-party tools behind the scenes. That lets the platform retain control over UX and safety, and avoids the risks of embedding arbitrary third-party UI.

Re: Components will kill pages

#18

Post by skybrian »

When I use ChatGPT to do research, I expect it to justify itself by quoting from web pages and linking to those web pages. (I gave it explicit instructions to quote things, but unfortunately it will only do short quotes.)

This might be an extended web search, but it's still a web search. The documents need to exist. Maybe a lot of the surrounding boilerplate disappears, though?

Re: Components will kill pages

#19

Post by kylehotchkiss »

> Imagine your own product. You likely won’t expect users 5 years from today to navigate 5 pages deep, apply filters and sort data just to try to derive the answer themselves… will you?

Yes, I do, because outside of tech circles, AI adoption is not as pervasive/ universal as the loudest voices keep suggesting. I’m not dismissing its value, but gentle reminder to spend more time around nontechnical people, listen to how they feel about the tech, and pay attention to how they engage with it when offered.

Re: Components will kill pages

#20

Post by themafia »

> If AI wants to own the internet

As if. It's corporations that want to own _your eyeballs_.

It also kills any incentive to publish anything.

It completely removes the user from having any agency over the sources of information they are presented with.

> My hope is that you will embrace the change

Some people get so caught up with the technology they seem to forget they're charging straight into the most boring dystopia imaginable.

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