
Webkit.js - bane
https://trevorlinton.github.io/
======
FrozenVoid
This will be used for unblockable ads and obfuscated content(i.e. forcing a
specific style and layout), along with WebAssembly and DRM built into the next
browsers spec, this looks like the end of "free" web. Essentially this
decouples the browser from DOM control and the ability to inspect and alter
content, which is now dependent on some minified JS and ajax data.

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beaconstudios
some pet project to convert webkit to JS will be the end of the free web?
seems a bit hyperbolic.

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FrozenVoid
Yes. You don't see the implications for advertisement industry and the ability
to mandates standard content layout for publisher and web designers. Once they
take a whiff of "standard canvas" benefits there will be a push to make it the
next platform, like e.g. Jquery, react or hip new framework you like, except
it will have commercial advantage for adopting it due advertisement being
unblockable and reduced need for compatibility for other browser: they will be
reduced to JS/Canvas renderers.

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beaconstudios
I work in advertising, I'm pretty familiar with the technology involved.
Everything you just described is what Flash ads were back in the day and the
internet managed to survive those. Also, most ads now are HTML5 - but can be
blocked based on URL or script contents. What makes you think that wouldn't
also be the case for canvas ads? After all they have to be rendered via
scripts.

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saurik
If the entire page is being rendered in a simulated browser, much like how to
block content on a full page Flash app (which we were on the verge of seeing a
lot of had Apple not decided to destroy Flash by not supporting it on the
iPhone) requires Flash-level introspection, blocking content then requires you
to build a content blocker that lives at the level of the simulated browser,
not the real one, only every web page could come with its own slightly-
different and obfuscated engine (even if just due to an optimizing compiler
and not on purpose). I think you are still thinking of "islands of canvas in a
world full of HTML", and that is _not_ the thought experiment in play here.

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beaconstudios
have you seen how horribly non-performant the linked page is? and that's to
render a bit of static SVG, which is much closer to the primary use case of
canvas than a full dynamic web page. The idea that we'll have full web pages
being completely powered by javascript on the pixel-level is ridiculous. Plus
- so what if ads can't be blocked? It's not the "end of the free web" as the
original commenter stated. That's pure hyperbole.

------
brudgers
Copyright is 2014.

Past discussion,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921699](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921699)

