Is it time to save the web?

For the last couple of years, I have not had the feeling that the web is rapidly giving way to something that I don’t like. Something that he should not be. The feeling is quite subjective, but last week I came across an article by André Staltz under the headline “The Web began to die in 2014. And this is how,” which confirms my feelings with facts. And that's what I think about the reasons.

For a start, this is what Andre is talking about. The web is giving way to the top three Google-Facebook-Amazon and thus we are approaching a situation where network neutrality is threatened. In the United States, attempts are being made to change the rules in order to begin to separate traffic. What this will lead, the reader will guess himself. At the same time, the web gives way to a mobile platform, which is actually under the control of two companies capable of dictating their conditions. In other words, we see two pressure points.

For example, you may notice that today Apple has a strong influence on WebRTC or WPA technology, restraining their penetration into iOS.

In his article, Andre gives figures and graphs confirming these statements. I am interested in the reasons. This is what negatively affects the current development of the web:

1. Disunity.
2. Moral obsolescence.
3. Increased complexity.
4. Littered
5. Increased mutability.
6. Insecurity

Let's deal with each item separately.

Disunity

Data should migrate easily over the network. But the sites do not interact with each other. To transfer a file from one site to another, you have to save it to disk, and then upload it to the target site. Personal communication opportunities are also very limited: many sites implement their own message system, isolated from the outside world: when I see an article I cannot discuss the material with the author without intermediaries.

Moral obsolescence

Modern technology should make life easier. The web is built on outdated technology: most protocols are still textual. In fact, we use electronic parchment. Well, or take one of the technologies of the modern web - mail. It possesses the best features of technology for communication, is truly decentralized and allows you to communicate with several interlocutors using independent servers. But how many of us have our own mail server or have it entrusted to third parties? Communication is an integral part of the daily communication of users. But the web has not offered a decent alternative to this protocol. New users choose other channels of communication, centralized. Such systems very often do not offer open solutions for self-deployment.

Cumulative effort

The ownership of the server should not differ from the installation of the application on the phone. But the process of publishing and launching a web application is still a mysterious sacrificial ritual and is not available to ordinary users. To create a group in Facebook, you will need several times less time. And the stories about how to build a frontend turn into comic stories about the choice of a dozen tools and frameworks.

Littered

Information must be available and open. I noticed behind myself that I less often go to unfamiliar sites, because I don’t want to come across low-quality content in the form of clickbate, pop-up banners, the lack of desired content or simply disgusting design.

It can be attributed to a subjective idea, but where does this popularity of applications like AdBlock come from? 2015 was a year of fighting intrusive advertising, Apple specifically added the possibility of creating blockers in Safari.

Increased mutability

User does not have to pay twice. to understand similar content, on different sites the user cannot use the previously developed neural connections, he is forced to perform information recognition every time. Visual templates do not work, which leads to increased energy costs and the user goes to where the content is of lower quality but is absorbed faster.

Insecurity

The user must have a source of valid data. Today, not all web programs have switched to HTTPS. Make sure that the requested page was created by the developer, and not by the attacker is simply impossible. Yesterday’s site page and its current version may not be the same, and the user may not even be aware of this ! The principles of network security are not clear to the user.

When is the funeral?

Never. I hope that this is still a stagnation, and not signs of inevitable death. It seems to me that today's web is out of date and irreversibly, and the best thing we can do today is to redesign the system with the experience gained. Draw a general plan for the near future, where the principles of the new truly (or still) decentralized web will be described.

PS In the next part I will tell you how to defend the web (from my point of view) and what I do for it.