

Enabling the Web of Mobile Apps - jmilinovich
http://blog.adlast.com/why-were-here?utm_source=hn&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=launch

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jaredcwhite
Stuff like this is probably good from a consumer perspective. From a "state of
the web" perspective (and speaking as a web geek/professional), this is
terrible. Yet another step away from the openness of the web and into the
walled garden of platform-specific apps. I thought we had already voted as a
planet to embrace what the web represents. Walled gardens like Compuserve,
Prodigy, (old) AOL, etc.

Why can't links go to a mobile-optimized website, and from there (if I chose)
I can decide to open that content in a native app? The browser should be the
first destination of links.

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jmilinovich
It's interesting that you bring up the openness of the web and the walled
garden of apps. Our goal is to break down those barriers by enabling people to
link into the middle of apps to stitch together native and web experiences.

We see the "HTML5 vs Native App" debate as a separate issue, though, and are
instead focused on created the best possible end user experiences for our
customers.

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Spone
What about linkrot when adla.st is no longer maintained? Imho yhat's the
problem of this solution, relying on a third-party (your) domain.

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the_watcher
Why would they stop maintaining it? Bit.ly hasn't stopped getting users and it
poses the same risks, right?

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Spone
Tons of reasons, actually. Just have a look at URL shorteners...
[http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=URLTeam#Dead_or_B...](http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=URLTeam#Dead_or_Broken)

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the_watcher
Guess I should have been more clear: what risks do they run that aren't
already inherent to link shorteners like bit.ly (that are still getting
users)?

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nwenzel
Yes please... Anything to get past crappy mobile websites. At least most
mobile websites with apps (or is it baked into iOS?) are smart enough to give
you an option to open an app after the page loads.

And from a retailer's standpoint, how could you not use this? You basically
bring someone exactly to where they asked to go and exactly to where you want
them to go.

