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Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

woob.tech

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Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#31

Post by dylan-m »

I like the idea of this. There's so much information on the web, but we still need a way to bring that information to other applications, without being tied to a particular source. That was really the dream of the semantic web, after all.

This kind of idea would be really nicely paired with good Microformats[1] support, which continues to be a very good idea. That way we can find, say, a recipe or an address on a web page in a reusable way and without needing magical heuristics.

(Of course, "reusable" in theory, with the caveat that everybody forgot about microformats around when Google decided they could machine learn their way out of everything).

[1] http://microformats.org

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#32

Post by 0x445442 »

Believe it or not, around the turn of the century there were many thick client apps. But back then it was a challenge to ship and update these applications. This pain, along with the continued rollout of broadband led many to advocate for creating applications that would run in a web browser while being controlled on centralized servers. In practice, turning the platform that was designed to render markup text into an application host. This would allow applications to be shipped and updated with little interaction from the user.

However, right about the same time web apps were taking over the world there were thick client apps that were solving the problems of installation and and updates. Two of the prominent thick client applications doing this were iTunes and the browsers themselves.

Now fast forward a decade to the early teens and the ubiquitous use of smart phones. What is the single largest determining factor of platform success? Is it the ability for web apps to render on your platform's web browser or is it the breadth and depth of your platform's app store?

My rant is over, I wish web apps would die. I've wished that for most of the 21st century.

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#33

Post by throwaway744678 »

pjerem wrote: post #5
zeeZ wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first guess was this had something to do with legal nonsense, and I guess I was right: > If provided, icons are preferred to be parodic or humorous in nature for legal reasons, however there are no restrictions on the quality or style of humor. https://gitlab.com/woob/woob/-/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Yes, but I think they are, also, just for making fun of some brands. Because, also a fun fact : this project changed its name recently, it was called Weboob before: https://weboob.org

The 6th contributor's (nick)name, can be translated to something like "Fuckthewhores", with a play on words with Belzebuth

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#34

Post by Hackbraten »

pjerem wrote: post #5
zeeZ wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first guess was this had something to do with legal nonsense, and I guess I was right: > If provided, icons are preferred to be parodic or humorous in nature for legal reasons, however there are no restrictions on the quality or style of humor. https://gitlab.com/woob/woob/-/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Yes, but I think they are, also, just for making fun of some brands. Because, also a fun fact : this project changed its name recently, it was called Weboob before: https://weboob.org

Good on them. I really disliked the old name.

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#36

Post by vannevar »

smt88 wrote: post #20
Ajedi32 wrote: post #12

Wow! I actually love the idea of being able to interact with websites via a standard API rather being forced to use web-based UI they provide. It opens up a whole lot of possibles for things like alternate clients, standard UIs for interacting across multiple sites, etc. Also eliminates the possibility of sites engaging in annoying or abusive behavior by putting users in full control of the client rather than the sit…

> I actually love the idea of being able to interact with websites via a standard API rather being forced to use web-based UI they provide. For a while, people were pitching this as Web 2.0. It's also what RSS and podcasts still are. Unfortunately, most of the websites we visit are revenue-generating and want to control their presentation.

Right. There are all kinds of great services that could be built on top of other peoples' web sites, but most sites want to own the relationship with their customer directly. And most of the great ideas for mashup services are predicated on the idea that the mashup will get most of the revenue, which is not going to fly with the underlying value providers. In an ad-supported web world, those who own the eyeballs call the shots.

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#37

Post by sys_64738 »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #12

Wow! I actually love the idea of being able to interact with websites via a standard API rather being forced to use web-based UI they provide. It opens up a whole lot of possibles for things like alternate clients, standard UIs for interacting across multiple sites, etc. Also eliminates the possibility of sites engaging in annoying or abusive behavior by putting users in full control of the client rather than the sit…

Isn't this just what Electron provides?

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#38

Post by userbinator »

pjerem wrote: post #5
zeeZ wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first guess was this had something to do with legal nonsense, and I guess I was right: > If provided, icons are preferred to be parodic or humorous in nature for legal reasons, however there are no restrictions on the quality or style of humor. https://gitlab.com/woob/woob/-/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Yes, but I think they are, also, just for making fun of some brands. Because, also a fun fact : this project changed its name recently, it was called Weboob before: https://weboob.org

I remember weboob, and all the amusing names of the various pieces. Unfortunate that the (French) humour was killed by political correctness.

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#39

Post by mxuribe »

clone1018 wrote: post #17
Ajedi32 wrote: post #12

Wow! I actually love the idea of being able to interact with websites via a standard API rather being forced to use web-based UI they provide. It opens up a whole lot of possibles for things like alternate clients, standard UIs for interacting across multiple sites, etc. Also eliminates the possibility of sites engaging in annoying or abusive behavior by putting users in full control of the client rather than the sit…

I've had two ideas related to this in the past that I've always wanted to prototype: - A social media website without a frontend. We just provide a fully exposed API and Oauth, and devs can create their own client to interact with the social network. This would give devs the freedom to create their own experiences without locking users into one specific way of using the social network. - "Cloud" content hosting as a…

For your first idea around social media, while not 100% exactly what you cited, the fediverse sort of already provides for that...Well, specifically the ActivityPub protocol (and couple of other protocols) enable such functionality...and frankly there are numerous (yes, not just 1 or 2, but numerous) server implementation which further enable numerous desktop and mobile clients to interact with content...all federated/sort of decentralized. If you've heard of mastodon, then they tend to capture most of the mindshare, but there are many other servers and clients...and there are reportedly millions of people on the fediverse around the world...so we're sort of already where you would like to be. ;-)

I'm sure there are many sites which help provide better context for the fediverse, but here, check this one out: https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse

Cheers!

Re: Woob: Web Outside of Browsers

#40

Post by mxuribe »

pavlov wrote: post #23

It's like a peek at an alternative Internet where Gopher won instead of WWW.

There has been a desire to go back to older days where text was more prevalent, and so Gemini has begin and is gaining popularity - though I'm sure very slowly. See: https://gemini.circumlunar.space/

Also, separately (though i wouild not be surprised if frequented by same/similar folks who have interets in Gemini), there is also the tildeverse...again, more text-heavy environments. See: https://tildeverse.org/

And, as i have stated in another comment there is the fediverse (e.g. Mastodon, pleroma, etc.), so the ability to leverage APIs to interact with other folks and their content without explicitly needing a typical web browser exists, and flourishes.

I'll end by stating that there are a few exciting things - like the above items i mention as well as this neat Woob platform - which to me seem very fun, a little new, and yet at the same time in some ways nostalgic...maybe they won't make the morning news, and likely only attract geeks, but it is all still exciting - at least for me!

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