why do all modern WEB BROWSERS suck so bad??

[chrisNova777]

can we talk about WEB BROWSERS in the last 4 years??

can anyone care to explain why almost all of the top browsers complete SUCK now?
regardless of platform/operating system... firefox + chrome are complete garbage now

i just installed Chrome v53 on Windows and instantly that "feel" i remember from mid 2010s is back..
along with my diagonal tabs that arent hugely oversized to the point of wastin my pixels on my screen

i cant help but feel like theres some counter-intelligence at work... purposely trying to make the World wide web suck really bad!
some recent events to support that argument come to mind:

-- when facebook purposely GIMPED their desktop version about 1-2 years ago now? when they forced everyone to use their new cartoon CRAP style.. im all for changing things to  IMPROVE things.. but good god man... make sure its an improvement and not ten steps back? it seems like all new OS + Software is all fischer price looking while hiding spyware and other bs under the hood that is self-serving to the software developers companies...

-- when google forced everyone to stop using their old GMAIL interface that everyone was used to and had zero problems with in favour of thier slow ass clunky new software version that i hate with a passion

i dare you to try browseing with a browser from, say, the 2014-2017 time period and try browsing with it for a bit and feel the difference (regardless what speed your computer is)
the FEEL is almost more important than anything else to me.. like when things are rendered in a strange rhythm, lagging along, it really takes away from your mental focus

is it just classic bloatware/spyware? what are they really "adding"? becasue to me it seems they are "taking away"...
each time a new version comes out they make these small minute "changes" that ultimately is changing the whole experience of using the product after so many years of minute changes adding up

actually im trying the new firefox now and its ok after some tweaking lol
but google + facebook are the devil

google especially keeps destroying everything previously that made GOOGLE kick ass .. sigh
i guess it doesnt help im still using mostly pcs + macs from the 2000's + early 2010's heh

[Rosetta]

i guess it doesnt help im still using mostly pcs + macs from the 2000's + early 2010's heh

Ding ding. Yeah, sites are beyond bloated these days. Yeah, they're tracking the $h!t out of us.

If you can get it on your devices... Brave browser. Otherwise, ad and content blockers. Basic HTML Gmail interface set by default on your accounts. Yes, it's still around, and even works in Classilla! Use Startpage or other lighter and more private services instead of the spyware conglomerates. Just straight up get rid of Facebook.

Problems solved ;-)

[Bolkonskij]

Modern browsers are bloated pieces of glued together software, enormous in its bloatness. But that's what the whole web has become. As place that was decentralized by design has become a centralized one in the hands of a few companies which push development into the direction that is benenficial for them. (= $$$)

From a user's standpoint, there's nothing beneficial in it. Little progress has been made in functionality and speed (not to mention orginality) for almost two decades.

There's a saying on the wall behind me: "He is free who lives the way he wants". There is no reason (apart from earning your livelihood) why you need to put up with this!

Limit your use of the modern web to as few as possible. Especially (anti-) social media. I know what I'm talking about, because I did. I deleted my Amazon account three weeks ago. I deleted all social media except Facebook which I use for chat alone. (looking into alternatives at this very moment!)

All of my projects are and will be HTML 3.2 compatible. They will continue to work with Netscape 4 and even a Mac Quadra. They don't track people. They don't try to infringe on your privacy. They focus on helpful content instead of squeezing money out of your pockets.

We'll have to (re)build our own web, no way around it as I see it.

68k.news is a great example of how everyone can easily build a service that allows you to read the headlines even on an old Mac Plus. And why shouldn't you? The Macintosh Garden will go HTML 3.2 with its next iteration, you can check out their progress right now.

There's already so many services, many of which you haven't even heard of yet. While we enjoyed exploring the richness of the web in the early days, many were dumbed down to start thinking that "The web == Google / Facebook / YouTube".

No, it's not. Open your eyes! Explore websites full of information instead of clickbait with the wiby.org search engine for instance! It's a real eye-opener of what the web once was and has become!

There are already alternatives out there. Let's use them! Let's push them! Let's create new ones. Spit on "Big Tech", let's create a web 1.1 that takes the other way and helps creating the information super-highway that makes us better instead of making Bezos & others rich.

It needs us nerds to do the first step. Others will follow. Let's roll up our sleeve's and get the Web 1.1 idea going!

And who knows, once this is rolling we may get browsers who actually do what users want, that are slick and speedy and actually beneficial for their users.

[Rosetta]

Amen, Bolkonskij!

There are much bigger factors contributing to the issue than just lazy coding unfortunately. Social, economic, ethical... The net as a whole just isn't the same as it once was.

Sites like ours (my personal/portfolio site was designed / implemented / published fully from an OS 9 G4 for instance, sans ads, sans tracking, small family-owned webhost, etc.) are like what mom and pop shops are to shopping malls and Walmart. So it really does become "he is free who lives the way he wants" indeed.

We can lead the charge and do our thing but... I'm not optimistic. A "Web 1.1" revolution just isn't going to happen.

HOWEVER, we can at least find comfort in knowing that there's others out there who don't subscribe to the centralized corporatized anti-social anti-privacy anti-user side of the internet and all the baggage that comes with it, even down to what browsers and systems we must use to access it.

[Greystash]

I agree 100%. The modern web is a mess and optimisation seems to have gone out the window a long time ago. Devs and browser builders tend to rely on people upgrading their machines every couple of years so they can quickly slap together everything as easily as possible.

In saying this I have been working on a big project recently but wasn't sure if this was the right place to mention it, but it might relate to some people on this thread. I am a firm believer in rebuilding a cleaner and accessible web, that's why I made Sloop: https://sloop.nz. It's still a work in progress, it's almost complete but I need to make some more themes etc. Pricing may also need to be adjusted? I can't do free subscriptions because of the cost to me but I would be keen on hearing what people would expect to be reasonable. It's pretty much a visual site builder to create clean websites that are accessible from IE5 and up. No tracking, no JavaScript, just clean and extendable websites. I won't go on about it too much, but if you have any thoughts or opinions please contact me through the website, so it doesn't interfere with the rest of this thread.

Along with this I also made a website directory - http://directory.sloop.nz. This is accessible on IE5 and up, it's a collection of websites that are accessible to older computers. My intention was to have a central place to collate clean websites that can be opened on any computer, and to help grow accessible web.

Any Ideas for websites that benefit our communities feel free to pitch them to me (private message), I do this outside of work for fun (unpaid) and enjoy helping our communities.