Why The Web Is Dead | Hacker News Reader

Why The Web Is Dead

sfgate.com

9 pointsthankuz9 comments

Just because native apps are back in trend again because of the mobile devices, doesn't mean the web is dead. The web is still "killing" desktop applications.

What is happening though, is that the whole cycle is starting from scratch on mobile devices. That means the mobiles also need to go through the "native" cycle before they jump to the "web" cycle, just like desktop PC's.

The reason is the platform vendors (Apple and Google, mostly) are doing a really poor job implementing modern HTML features into their browsers. The browsers, while continually getting better, and still far behind desktop. I'm not just talking about in performance, but in feature parity. I'm not sure why Google is having such a problem speeding up their development of the Android browser, as they have no trouble on the desktop. I suspect that the Android browser is made within the Android team and not within the Chrome team, which is a problem.

I'm also worried that because the browser is such a central part of the mobile experience (appearing in the doc, being opened from within any app), it makes it VERY difficult for competitors to gain a market, much more so than on desktop. Add to this that Apple doesn't allow competing layout engines and I'm worried that the mobile browser might never get to the point where the desktop browser is today.

Setting aside that this article is completely empty of actual content let alone any argument it makes the same sad mistake that many people do when discussing poverty.

The income gap between rich and poor is getting bigger and bigger which must mean that poor poor are getting poorer.

Or more and more people are using mobile devices which must mean that less and less are using the web.

So basically I am going to use my laptop/desktop for work and then when I want to check my facebook status I am going to whip out my iPad and check it there, because it's mobile.

Jezz... why didn't I think of that.

Considering they're confronted with a strident "Use the free Yelp app" banner, it's no surprise people steer away from the Yelp web experience on iOS.

More importantly, Yelp is most useful after you've already left home. There are tons of resources on the "web" for finding reviews of various local stuff, and a web search works pretty well for finding good stuff. When you are on the move, however, web search is (generally) a real pain, and non-mobile sites are (generally) a real pain. Yelp's app really fills a need.

I used the app extensively recently while trying to find an apartment, and I didn't see anything they were doing in the app that made me think, "This has to be a native app." I think what's being confused here are the two different "webs" that exist in todays tech parlance: the first is the one that you use a web browser to access and the second is the technology stack that allows you to deliver a device independent experience using a bunch of tools that helped build the first web (plus a bunch of new stuff). With the advent of things like PhoneGap, and the native platform fragmentation that's already begun, I suspect that we're going to see more, not less, efforts going into mobile web applications.

One side note: The extra emphasis placed on iOS and iPad in the article is also telling. Sure iOS may be winning in the tablet world, and doing a damn good job in smart phone world, but Facebook has 500+ million users. Even if you throw in Android, you're not even close the total number of Facebook users just in the US. If I was the Zuck, I would be thinking about a mobile strategy that wasn't caged in by specific device/platform growth too.

Seems like a temporary situation to me. At least, hopefully.

This is ridiculous. HTML5 apps just need to get better, and closed gardens need to open up. Viva la PhoneGap!

Seriously, why do you need to code an app in Objective C just to get native features? They should be exposed to Javascript. As usual, OPEN will win, and that means the web!

Some of the third-party solutions, such as PhoneGap and QuickConnect iPhone, do a lot to alleviate that problem.

Sorry, but I refuse to vote up yet another article declaring the internet, marketing, credit, the world, the universe, human communication or anything else 'dead'.

Try some original thought, people.

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