And what features and/or technologies you’d rather not see in a web browser
Lets make this interesting: you can imagine features ( there’s no wrong answers ) , its not just about features that you already saw in other browsers
I want regex find. I’m fairly certain firefox used to have it, but no longer seems to.
I have a vague memory of this but it might have been an extension.
if i open a site that ive opened x times this week/month a popup appears that says “no” then the pc shuts down and cannot be turned on for 3 hours.
saying: “no” sounds rude… maybe something like “no, go touch grass” that’d be better
I really just want web browsers to die, and be replaced by one of the slimmed down options like gemini, gopher, or some markdown viewer.
The web just keeps getting increasingly bloated and ad-ridden, and filled with popups. Web browsers are as complex as entire operating systems now, so only 2 orgs (google and mozilla) have the resources and expertise to build a browser, and mozilla might throw in the towel eventually, leaving the internet as one big google ad.
IE move viewing of mostly static content into these simple variants like gemini, and move dynamic things to local apps with API access.
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that’s a quite pessimistic stance, yes I do agree that web browsers are complexe and hard to maintain, but they can do more than viewing websites, you can play games, draw art, video chat, PDF viewing and editing, you can do a lot with just one app… that’s the beauty of Web browsers… The problem is in the Ad business model…
they can do more than viewing websites
The question is: should they? There is a larger philosophical divide about whether software tools should be small and purpose-built, or monolithic. Having one do-it-all tool can be convenient but also creates a huge amount of overhead and complexity.
I go back and forth myself. I love the convenience of monolithic tools, but miss the way a small, purpose-built tool can really do its job well.
One of the best cases for building a versatile tool, is accessibility to less privileged populations, for example people who can’t efford to have a reliable Internet because of their shady ISPs, they need a browser that renders web content as fast as possible, and also because they can’t afford to download apps due to slow internet speeds, Flatpaks could take gigabyte of HDD space and you have to update them later, which is painful in other parts of the world
Even if the user had a reliable Internet and solid hardware, maybe they’re a security minded individual, and want to keep their app installs to a minimum. To them many apps are considered bloat and that’s dangerous.
I think the difficulty lies in wisely choosing what features to include, before your users start asking : hey, do we really need that ? Or : who uses that ?
that’s why listening to feedback is so important
They shouldn’t be doing any of those things, html should be for simple, static content only.
For dynamic / interactive things, programmers should write programs again like they used to.
background/defocused tabs are ‘paused’ by default.
paused meaning no runtime execution of scripts or anything else.
firstly, there’s always some security and plenty of privacy mischief around focus.
secondly, it’s almost always wasting cycles, so its just wasteful of resources and energy.
ofc with some option for you to eg. right-click on a tab and mark it as ‘runtime in background’ or something, for webmail or messengers etc which you do want runtime.
but it should essentially be whitelisted.
i’ve actually played with this in the firefox debugger and it essentially appears feasible so really hope this feature comes oneday - or i finally get some time to look into making an addon for it.
firstly, there’s always some security and plenty of privacy mischief around focus.
Oh, how so?
i’ve actually played with this in the firefox debugger and it essentially appears feasible so really hope this feature comes oneday - or i finally get some time to look into making an addon for it
that’s cool, yes a browser should stop using resources when you stop using it ( minimize it ), or using that particular tab by making it inactive, chromium based browsers behave like that if I’m not mistaken
how so?
check here for some basic examples. eg. it can be used to leak info from one context to another.
there’s ofc legit uses for it too, which is why i argue for user intervention.
chromium based browsers behave like that if I’m not mistaken
i may be wrong? but my understanding is they’ll currently limit resources, but execution still takes place? that’s definitely useful, but my argument is for for an option where CPU resources be limited to 0 in background (without user intervention).
Blacklist-based ad blocking.
I don’t mind ads when they’re reasonable. If it helps fund your website at all, advertise away. But when there’s a sticky banner plus an autoplay video ad reducing my mobile viewport to a ridiculous degree, and the X buttons are too small to click and ad loading completely breaks the search bar until it’s done (hi fandom wiki) I want to be able to say “fuck these ads in particular”
I wanted to make coffee. Not a coffee maker that has a web browser - a web browser that can make coffee.
“Would you like some cookies with your coffee?”
Extension on HTTP 418 I’m a Teapot
As an addition to the translation tool (context menu in Firefox) it would be nice to have a conversion tool for the conversion of temperatures and lengths. I know there are addons for this purpose, but last time i checked they weren’t good or they were a hassle to use. Opera nailed it a few years ago with a little pop-up window when text got highlighted. It recognized when it was a SI unit. This is a feature that I have not seen in any other browser yet.
I want the old animated Netscape logo in the corner back
😏
Them were’t dairz
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Data saving option for mobile netwerk , and website’s RSS feed finder , webpage translation too … As for what I don’t want to see : big installation size , ugly design and tracking
website’s RSS feed finder
On Firefox, the RSSHubRadar extension is useful for that.
The feature being available by default in browsers would be cool
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In part that’s on YouTube and their bandwidth saving measures.
A limit of data that can be used daily and we can track how much data we consume.
A little discrete “progress bar” at the bottom of the toolbar would be cool to see in the blink of an eye where I am on my daily limit.
That would also look cool, aesthetically speaking
The most basic, minimal, light browser ever built with a well thought out extension framework. I want almost nothing built in.
This is what gemini is about.
So like back to the '90s with Netscape Navigatior and its plugins?
Or iCab of the late 90s.
Honestly I don’t think it’s much to ask to make the browser as lean as possible and have development focused on browsing and leave most of the rest to extensions. It’s kind more like where we were 14 years ago.
Edit: Features I wouldn’t mind built in would be much like what vibi suggested. Built in volume control , per tab. Stuff like that makes sense.
I agree it would be nice to have a product like that available as an option. I think the masses would still prefer a monolithic tool like Chrome for its convenience, though. I still remember all the annoyances of “You need a new plugin to view this content. Go get it and come back once it’s installed.”
I do remember that. But I’m not saying it wouldn’t be capable of playing video out of the box. I’m saying having a built in terminal and photoshop is dumb. Focus on the thing you’re supposed to be doing well.
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On android…Firefox refreshes the page any time you go to another tab or app and come back. That drives me batshit.
It rather sounds like too little free RAM or too agressive RAM management (frequent on Chinese phones) forcing Firefox to kill the tab as soon as you leave it.
Can confirm it’s not a thing that’s happening on my pixel and hasn’t happened on any of my android phones so far.
For my own use RAM management shouldn’t be a thing, i want all my apps to either stay loaded or just crash completely.
I’d like to be able to link a web app and its mobile app (lemmy.world and Jerboa for example). And to set a limit to the amount of time I spend on the pair. And have that sync across all my devices.
that’s interesting, I’m not sure I understand the idea, do you want the browser to monitor the mobile app time usage ( Jerboa ), I’m i correct ?
I spend too much time on Lemmy. And I do use an app timer on my phone. I need the website to take away from that same timer as well. When I use the website on my phone and on my laptop. I’m happy to make this clearer.
The thing I want natively is a built-in way to control volume per tab- not just mute, not through a plugin… Just a simple volume slider that works.
This would be a nice feature.
