Having a web feature off by default is essentially damning it to not exist, so that's a non-starter. If you don't like the features that are enabled by web standards most of them can be globally disabled by turning JavaScript off.
That's good, but might be too blunt a hammer. What should be is a standard way to turn them on/off per individual site, WITHOUT unsolicited popups.
>Having a web feature off by default is essentially damning it to not exist, so that's a non-starter.
As an IT teacher in a past life I've seen 10 year old kids go through 10 layers of obscure program settings to enable a particular behavior / proxy their way out of a school network / etc.
If people care enough for notifications, they will find a way to enable them. If they don't, no harm done.
If people don't care enough about notifications, they will find a way to disable them. If they don't, no harm done.
I appreciate that you have your own preference on this matter, but do you really think that most people don't like notifications? Most people want them.
A source for that?
What's a fact is that all people didn't had them for the first 15+ years of the web, and I've never heard people complaining about that lack -- whereas people always asked for faster loading websites, less popups, no auto-play for sound and videos, ability to turn off ads, etc.
None of the desires you list are associated with notifications.
We can bicker about implementation but saying "web apps don't need notifications" is as nonsensical as saying "desktop apps don't need notifications".
Source?