

Ask HN: If you could change one thing on the Web, what would it be? - smashing_mag

We often find ourselves in a situation where we notice that things just aren't right. For instance, we believe that CAPTCHAs should not exist on the Web. HTML Newsletters are nasty and ugly, but at the moment we just have to work with them because of the popular email clients out there. What would you change on the Web if you could make a difference?<p>What would it be and how would you change it?
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noonespecial
As long as I'm completely absolved from proving feasibility of
implementation... A reputation system for domains that are held for a long
time and don't piss off users.

Videolan.org should show a green dot by it's name. Getvlcforfree.com should
have a blinking red one. You earn your domain's credibility over time.
Browsers and search engines can be set just not to bother with karmas below 0
(or any given value).

Don't put your password or cc number into a red-dot Internet site is advice my
mom could handle.

~~~
dfrankow
Could this be implemented by a third party (e.g., Google) with a browser
plugin? In fact, e.g. <http://www.siteadvisor.com/>

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mhd
No more JavaScript. I don't think some transparent bytecode would ever make
it, but a simple lisp- or stack-based programming language would be sufficient
for a lot of normal tasks and a better target for more advanced systems to
compile to.

(That's the "one thing" approach. In an ideal world, I'd replace the whole
arcane HTML/CSS/JS/SVG/etc shebang with an improved version/variation of DPS)

~~~
bkudria
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_PostScript>

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wccrawford
Usage and improvement of open standards. We are seeing an increasing number of
closed protocols that should be open, such as IP Telephony (video and audio)
and instant messaging. All those services could work with each other and
increase the size of the market, but instead they work against each other.

If everyone used the same video calling protocol, it would be a lot more
popular because the common Joe would be able to use any client they wanted and
know it would work with whoever they want to call. Like a telephone. Could you
imagine if every telephone network was different and you have to use a Sprint
phone to talk to someone who only owned a Sprint phone? It's ludicrous.

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kamakazizuru
1\. Set standards for HTML CSS etc that EVERYONE uses, so things look the same
across browsers, screens and geographies.

2\. Get rid of <http://> from all URLs - we dont need it - its pointless, even
Tim-Berners Lee says so.

3\. Make it easier for everyone to mark websites as spam and have them taken
off easily (im talking about the ones that show up whenever you search
anything health related and promise you magical immediate cures).

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canistr
Make all buttons, particularly "next" buttons in photo albums or forums, much
much bigger. Every forum, photo album, multi-page news article, and website
has a habit of making tiny links/buttons to get to the next page. This makes
it incredibly difficult to click on anything but a mouse. Trackpads aren't
accurate and trying to press these tiny buttons on a touchscreen is futile.

To UI Designers: MAKE YOUR BUTTONS BIGGER!

~~~
pagekalisedown
Same thing for mobile app designers.

10 pixel high text on a Retina display? Really? Can I borrow your bionic eyes?

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frou_dh
There would be a (mostly) standard keyboard scheme to efficiently navigate and
use all sites.

~~~
jam
Try Vimium: <http://vimium.github.com/>

~~~
frou_dh
That is cool. I tried it when I used Chrome (and got a feature request added
IIRC).

But what I meant would be built in and more structurally aware than a top-
level link-clicker / scroller.

------
athst
I would kill all mailto: links. In the age of gmail, how many people does this
actually apply to? I always accidentally click these links, and it opens up
some default email program that came with my OS that I've never touched
before.

~~~
brianwillis
Depending on what browser you're using, extensions are available to make those
mailto links work with Gmail.

Some instructions to get you started here:
<http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10966>

------
dgallagher
When you visit a webpage to consume some content, such as a written article, a
picture, or a video, that should be the main focal-point of whatever you're
doing, and nothing else should be allowed to interrupt or delay you from
consuming it. This includes pop-up/hover dialog boxes, advertisements which
waist your time, webpages animating their skeleton while you're trying to read
now-moving text, grouped-content unnecessarily split across multiple pages,
etc...

All of these things annoy users, and introduce inefficiency to the entire
internet race. How many trillions of seconds are lost every year because of
this? Do you think in 2050 people will put up with 30 second commercials
before watching a 1 minute Hulu clip?

Obviously a lot of these things exist to fund websites, and getting rid of
them would destroy business models. There needs to be a way to de-annoy the
internet, and compensate content providers for lost revenue.

The number of solutions are plenty, but finding the best one will be tricky.
It would have to be adopted by most of the internet to succeed, after-all.

One idea might be to bill at the ISP-level. Each client pays ~$100/mo (made up
number), where $50 of that goes to the ISP, and the other $50 goes into a
bucket. Pending on what websites you visit online, and for how long, they earn
a certain percentage of that bucket and get paid at the end of the month.
Users who only want to pay $50/mo get the annoying internet.

How would you do it?

~~~
Zumzoa
Large, reputable company which people already pay a monthly/annual fee to
(such as an antivirus service) offers free no-script and ad-block install to
customers; something continually updated and intelligently moderated to remove
adverts except on sites the user green-lights. Animated and flash-based
adverts are the primary targets, while text and static images are left alone.
This encourages websites to use these forms of advertising. If a video
requires an unskippable video longer than 5 seconds to play before the feature
video, a pop-up box with a list of alternate links to the video is generated;
again, to push advertisers into short or static advertising.

The average user knows they need an antivirus program, and one brand in
particular is recommended above all others because it helps keep the internet
'clean', in a sense.

------
melling
How about a realistic one that developers could actually do? Take the Google
approach and remind/nag everyone to upgrade their browser if it's more than 2
versions old.

~~~
dfrankow
For people who don't have admin on their own machines (i.e. many large
organizations), that would suck.

------
hollerith
I'd like to be able to browse my favorite sites with a browser as _secure_ ,
_stable_ and _responsive_ as Emacs or Vim

\-- even if this stable/responsive browser is unable to run 3-D immersive
games and other desktop-like software

\-- and even if this browser does not run Javascript very well. (Of course
this last part would work only if my favorite sites do not rely heavily on
Javascript, which is currently the case.)

------
privateparty
I think it is hilarious that no one has mentioned how Internet Explorer
continues to ruin the web.

It has wasted incalculable hours of time for developers because it is pre-
installed and never uninstalled on every little minded client and supporting
IT team. I don't know how many times a great web product I have been involved
with has been presented to executives who are still using IE7. REALLY IE (in
general)!? How can a person make any sort of creative decision when they
themselves have the worst internet experience of all?

Ridding the web of that awful browser and allowing technology grow and foster
more inspiration is what we need. Without needing to support that god-awful
wreck of a browser would allow developers and creatives a better space to work
within to bring the web out of this lame web 2.0 era that will lurk around us
for even more years.

BAH

------
raldi
Reverse the order of domain name components. Most significant should be on the
left: com.ycombinator.news/blah/file

~~~
hollerith
the Brits wrote them that way into the 1990s.

~~~
waqf
yes! that was the original convention on <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JANET>.

------
slyall
I've like SRV records to work correctly. So URLs could be

<http://example.com>

<https://example.com>

ftp://example.com

skype://example.com

mail://example.com

and the correct servers (or aliases) would get pointed to.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record>

------
d_rwin
A relative perspective on print design publishing to internet platform:
www.psfk.com/2011/07/cory-doctorow-in-connected-age-what-role-for-a-publisher-
today.html

platform agnostic content is losing the relevance. The question- Content
platform will bring the change? Does projects like percolate.com prevail
against social interaction platforms? Up against:
blog.comscore.com/2011/06/facebook_linkedin_twitter_tumblr.html

------
pagekalisedown
I would deprecate all clear text protocols in favor or their secure
counterparts. For example, HTTPS vs HTTP.

------
pbreit
Some sort of seamless client certificate functionality to help out with
authentication and identity.

The "com.google" vs "google.com" is interesting since it obviously should be
"com.google" except that "google.com" is better for presentation purposes.

------
jcmhn
Browser error messages and warning dialogs about POST data and mixed encrypted
and un-encrypted data are worse than useless.

Browsers need to be silent by default regarding things that users are not
equipped to make decisions about.

------
noonespecial
Turn off all of that domain parking and domain sampling nonsense. If you're
going to grab a domain and keep it from everyone else on the net who could use
it from doing so, you should bloody well pay full price for it every year.

------
salsakran
The DOM + Javascript manipulations of it. Specifically the zillion ways.

Replaced with something else. Just about anything else, so long as it's a
single clear standard.

------
wlievens
Compliant browsers without any of the subtle differences and hacks. A
performant Canvas implementation, available in 2005, would have been neat.

------
enomar
The document.cookie API has to be the worst API ever invented. I'd fix that
and resolve the differences between JS and HTTP cookies.

------
jswinghammer
More websites support SPDY:

<http://www.chromium.org/spdy>

------
cstefanovici
I'd make data with a meaning like on listered.com, structured data,searchable
and sortable not static text

------
pradeek
Web Development. HTML and CSS weren't meant to do the things they are being
used to now..

------
don_m
I envision a world where all browsers have the same CSS capabilities.

------
m0nastic
The DOM. I'd take it out back and shoot it in the head.

------
karthikm
No more ads

~~~
matts10
sounds like a good way to ruin the web..

------
ehutch79
teach everyone how to speel

------
phyllotaxis
The day my mother can log on and do what she wants without instruction will be
the next generation of the internet. We're nowhere close to that today.

I want Star Trek for Baby Boomer moms : "Computer: send email to Gladys."
"Computer: turn the channel to Polyanna" "Computer: calculate 2011 taxes paid
to date and print results on the den" "Computer: show me favorite restaurant
list with realtime estimated wait. Make reservation for two at 8:10. Charge
bill to home account:"

I want "the internet" to be that simple. I want it to stop being called "the
internet". I want it to be so ubiquitous that it's just the way you get things
done. Not just a way to do things. When it finally is, we'll watch the world
kick into a future we've been wastefully squirreling away in fantasy novels.

*Oh, and forced audio on any webpage for any damned reason whatever is more inappropriate than farting at the dinner table.

~~~
orangecat
This is isomorphic to artificial general intelligence, which will have
implications way beyond making the Internet easier to use.

------
ujjvala
URL as only one word(alphabets) no use of dots, slashes and other funky
characters, like while you want to go to google you simply type google

------
renegademaniac
Only one, Webkit powered browser by Google.

~~~
stephenr
I'm sorry, did you not see what happened when Microsoft effectively "owned"
the browser market?

And even if you had to pick a single company to make a browser - why would you
pick the one browser maker whose major source of income is whoring out your
details?

