Don't trust Google, will they send the data to their servers to "improve the service"?
WebMCP is available for early preview
71–80 of 226 posts
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#72Can someone explain what the hell is going on here? Do websites want to prevent automated tooling, as indicated by everyone putting everything behind Cloudfare and CAPTCHAs since forever, or do websites want you to be able to automate things? Because I don't see how you can have both. If I'm using Selenium it's a problem, but if I'm using Claude it's fine??
In a nutshell: Google wants your websites to be more easily used by the agents they are putting in the browser and other products. They own the user layer and models, and get to decide if your product will be used. Think search monopoly, except your site doesn't even exist as far as users are concerned, it's only used via an agent, and only if Google allows. The work of implementing this is on you. Google is building…
Knowing Google, there’s a good chance it will turn out like AMP [0]: concerning, but only spotty adoption, and ultimately kind of abandoned/irrelevant.
It’s the Google way.
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
matrix.ita does this very well, and has been doing so for nearly 3 decades.
Do you mean this website? https://matrix.itasoftware.com I dind't know about it, just checked it out for a flight I'll buy soon, and has almost no direct flights which I know exist because they're on skyscanner...
In particular, you can come up with fairly complex search expressions in the "routing". In the early days the site was implemented using Lisp.
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#74I'm glad I'm not the only one whose features are obsolete by the time they're ready to ship!
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
The parent post is a list of failed technologies. Perhaps XML failed for a bad reason, but fail it did. Web MCP will likely fail for the same reasons as the other listed techs.
If you think XML is a failed technology you haven't stepped foot anywhere near a serious enterprise company.
the CNC machine I'm working retrofitting right now has XML definitions for basically the entire thing from GPIO setup to machine size parameters. Kinda crazy but at least it isn't a cursed hex file
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#76>Users could more easily get the exact flights they want Can we stop pretending this is an issue anyone has ever had.
Haha.
Im still waiting for someone to show me something that makes me go "Wow!".
Show me, dont tell me!
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#77Can someone explain what the hell is going on here? Do websites want to prevent automated tooling, as indicated by everyone putting everything behind Cloudfare and CAPTCHAs since forever, or do websites want you to be able to automate things? Because I don't see how you can have both. If I'm using Selenium it's a problem, but if I'm using Claude it's fine??
Both. I imagine if using this there is a tell (e.g. UA or other header). Sites can just block unauthenticated sessions using it but allow it to be used when they know who.
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#78Can someone explain what the hell is going on here? Do websites want to prevent automated tooling, as indicated by everyone putting everything behind Cloudfare and CAPTCHAs since forever, or do websites want you to be able to automate things? Because I don't see how you can have both. If I'm using Selenium it's a problem, but if I'm using Claude it's fine??
WebMCP should be a really easy way to add some handy automation functionality to your website. This is probably most useful for internal applications.
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Me too but it died when ads became the currency of the web. If the reason the site exists is to use ads, they’re not going to let you use an user agent that doesn’t display the ads.
> If the reason the site exists is to use ads, they’re not going to let you use an user agent that doesn’t display the ads. They've been giving it the old college try for the better part of two decades and the only website I've had to train myself not to visit is Twitch, whose ads have invaded my sightline one time too many, and I conceded that particular adblocking battle. I don't get the sense that it's high on the…
Same, I just don't use Twitch when possible. Most streamers rehost their VODs on Youtube which has a better player anyway.
Re: WebMCP is available for early preview
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about Authentication? Should the users to be on Google SSO to use their WebMCP?
Here is the answer from Gemini: > Google's Web Model Context Protocol (WebMCP) handles authentication by inheriting the user's existing browser session and security context. This means that an AI agent using WebMCP operates within the same authentication boundaries (session cookies, SSO, etc.) that apply to a human user, without requiring a separate authentication layer for the agent itself.
Here’s what Gemini says about copy-pasting AI answers:
> Avoid "lazy" posting—copying a prompt result and pasting it without any context. If the user wanted a raw AI answer, they likely would have gone to the AI themselves.