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83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

theregister.co.uk

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Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#41

Post by LeoPanthera »

vonklaus wrote: post #13
pilom wrote: post #9

Can anyone recommend an updated browser that skips most unused features to run faster, use less memory or be more secure?

Brave software. This was created by Brendan Eich the x ceo of mozilla. Eich does seem to have some problems with equality[0] which may have contributed to his ouster at Mozilla, but Brave is a top shelf browser. Super great team, pretty security conscious and given the Eich developed JS, well, they have a pretty good working knowledge of it. Brian Bondy is a super awesome guy (thanks for adding duckduckgo BTW), Yan Z…

The ultimate goal for Brave (I don't know if it's doing this yet) is to replace blocked ads with ones sold by the Brave company.

I cannot support this.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#42

Post by marssaxman »

TheCowboy wrote: post #40
marssaxman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god. No no no. I cannot hate this idea hard enough to overcome my fear that someday this kind of thing might actually happen! This would be the browser's job, under user control, not ever the site's job. My computer, my choice, no you don't get to decide that for me just because you are a web page designer.

It's difficult to pull this off with every website and keep it readable, without any hint from the site. This is why we have CSS for different screen sizes, rather than relying on mobile browsers to make all the decisions, along with an option to view the site in "desktop mode". I do agree that it would be annoying if sites made this decision for users. But I think the more promising use for this could be enabling ae…

I'm already constantly using "readability mode" to strip away as much of the custom styling as I can, because letting designers run riot - and building browsers that obey their wishes - has turned the web into such a mess. Tighter limits and more end-user control would be better. Different people have different preferences about their browsing experience and should be able to control that without having to rely on every last web designer to make helpful choices, because they really just don't.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#44

Post by alchemical »

And for the websites that leverage browser features, those are the websites that stand out and shine.

It reminds me of Sturgeon's law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

If 99% of everything is crap, you can bet a sizeable wager the 1% wheat from the chaff are using HTML5 and Javascript APIs.

Also if a content silo counts as a 'top website' then this is an outlier and not to be included. Facebook is a walled garden and not indexable. Facebook is parasitical to the web. Twitter and Google are not the web either.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#45

Post by coroutines »

gene-h wrote: post #36
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

> ALS, “ambient light events”, would let browsers respond to the light level the laptop, phone or desktop is exposed to if anybody used it. Can someone give me a good, non-gimmicky example of what this would be used for?

Provided one can access sensor data fast enough, cross device tracking[0]. Display an ad that lights up the room in such a way that you can read it with the sensor. Communication across an airgap. If you have two devices with screens and said sensors in a dark room, they might be able to communicate by turning screens on and off. Most speculatively, imaging the environment with compressive imaging[1]. One might be ab…

I like how you ripped out any positivity around the topic :D You are my hero

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#46

Post by Retric »

alchemical wrote: post #44

And for the websites that leverage browser features, those are the websites that stand out and shine. It reminds me of Sturgeon's law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law If 99% of everything is crap, you can bet a sizeable wager the 1% wheat from the chaff are using HTML5 and Javascript APIs. Also if a content silo counts as a 'top website' then this is an outlier and not to be included. Facebook is a walled…

You mean like Hacker news? Because, I don't think this site leverages HTML 5.

The hard part of any design is knowing what features can be removed not added. HTML 5 and JavaScript is fluff for most websites.

PS: HN even uses <table id="hnmain"... o the horror.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#47

Post by inanutshellus »

vonklaus wrote: post #30
LionessLover wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to the reply with the pointer to the standards, sure NaN !== NaN. NaN means "no idea what we've got here". When you get to say that phrase, would you expect it to be used for exactly one thing and one thing only? To me "I have no idea" means the possibilities are endless (infinite). We can only compare for equality when we know what we are looking at, otherwise it's just "status unknown". Yes, it might be…

Again, I am aware of what the behavior is, although this was a nice refresher and I appreciate it ;) The joke was, of course, surrounding the Mozilla incedent where Brendan Eich stepped down from his position as CEO apparently because of a perception that he was promoting inequality. This characterization was due to his support of prop 8 (a bill about marriage equality, or lake there of). To completely ruin the joke'…

> and generally just not being a funny joke.

I thought it was damn funny. There was definitely an unintended outburst at my desk.

But then...... I also thought it was spectacularly hypocritical of Mozilla to fire him for having what amounted to... ideals. Which is what Mozilla supposedly works to protect.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#48

Post by captainmuon »

There are web sites, and there are web apps. Most websites, think news sites, Wikipedia, etc.. just deliver static content and a whole bunch of ads, as someone noted here. Web applications are the ones that need all this functionality.

Why don't we do the following for HTML6, and introduce one profile for sites, and one for apps.

- Sites: HTML + CSS, Javascript if at all only for presentation purposes (like DHTML over a decade ago). Can be viewed with a radically stripped-down web browser. All you need is the layout engine and components for display and networking. No WebGL, no sound API, and no shenanigans like ambient light sensors or vibration (wtf!). Think of Google's AMP.

- Apps: The whole package that is offered nowadays. We can even go past this and rethink the division between web and native apps. Why can't a web app use sockets? Why can't a native app use the HTML layout engine or live in a tab? Google is planning to blur the gap between web and native with their new "instant apps".

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#49

Post by moron4hire »

vonklaus wrote: post #34
moron4hire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

APIs have nothing to do with the interpreting of the language.

Sure, but presumably a browser and the codebase has to support all of the apis and the entire specification. Would it not be able to optimize a browser if say, as the article claims, olnly ~17% of the features/apis need to be supported? Or would this totally not matter.

There is no way to be certain without digging in to the particular code in question. But "optimization" isn't just some magic pixie dust that you sprinkle on to a project and it makes things faster. Some things can't be optimized because they are already optimal. Some things shouldn't be "optimized" (e.g. for speed) because it would make the code less optimal (e.g. for understanding, maintaining, etc.).

The number of APIs available should be orthogonal to the issue of system performance. If it is not in particular cases, it's via bad overall system design, not the existence of the API in general.

Re: 83% of browser features are used by under 1% of top websites

#50

Post by alchemical »

Retric wrote: post #46
alchemical wrote: post #44

And for the websites that leverage browser features, those are the websites that stand out and shine. It reminds me of Sturgeon's law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law If 99% of everything is crap, you can bet a sizeable wager the 1% wheat from the chaff are using HTML5 and Javascript APIs. Also if a content silo counts as a 'top website' then this is an outlier and not to be included. Facebook is a walled…

You mean like Hacker news? Because, I don't think this site leverages HTML 5. The hard part of any design is knowing what features can be removed not added. HTML 5 and JavaScript is fluff for most websites. PS: HN even uses <table id="hnmain"... o the horror.

> HTML 5 and JavaScript is fluff for most websites

Yeah but HN can be progressively enhanced and it's also one of the few exceptions to the rule.
Indeed.

Worth noting the small eco-system of HN redesigns which all leverage HTML5+JS in some way :)

All sites should be like an electric stairs: the stairs still works when the power is cut off, but to the inconvenience of the users.

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