I’ve been thinking on this for a while and I’ve decided I want a web browser that does less. I don’t want one that suggests URLs based on my browsing history. I don’t want one that guesses what I’m looking for as I type into the address bar. I don’t want one that tries to open embedded media without first asking permission.
I do want something that is W3C compliant. I do want one that throws up barriers to cross-site tracking as the default mode.
Firefox is now suggesting pages to visit based on history. It caches the most common sites and displays a graphical representation of them in the default tab content. It guesses what I’m looking for as I type. It’s starting to feel a bit too intrusive. Chrome is no different in this respect. In fact with the tight integration with the googleplex, it is probably even worse. Opera is just, well, Opera. Safari isn’t exactly cross platform. Just about all of the other major/minor players also fall into that bucket. Internet Explorer is the historical devil.
I guess maybe what I want it to go back to using lynx, only with more pointy-clicky. And maybe some syncing between instances.
nerd
I miss you Nick Hansen
Hi Cece!
wasssup Elizabeth Hansen
board and hot…you?
Miss having you around. There’s been a significant lack of crushing things lately.
Completely agree. I’d like one that doesn’t eat up all my memory, too.
Firefox is moving from XUL which is supposed to reduce the footprint significantly. On the one hand, yay! On the other, XUL was a great GUI crossover platform and opening the browser at a fundamental level made for some awesome plugins.
The new direction is more like Chrome/chromium. Fewer hooks and less visibility, more stability and better performance. Exactly the kind of thing that Apple was excoriated for about a decade ago.
I want your browser too. I don’t want to discover the same sites as everyone else! I don’t want my browser to figure me out. I want the joy of discovery!