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Comment by pbmonster | Hacker News Reader

> Using web versions, not apps, is important because companies keep user device statistics and if enough people insist in using web versions, the the web will continue to be at least partially supported by big tech.

It's also frequently just better. If I'm looking for hotels, flights, apartments, restaurants, hiking trails, ect., doing so in a browser allows me to keep dozens of comparable offers open for direct comparison - just by jumping between browser tabs.

Doing the same in the app means endlessly navigating between offers, favorites, and new searches. It's often very obvious that the app was built explicitly to be less powerful.

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The main downside to many mobile web sites is the desperate plea to use the app you have to dismiss every time. I feel sorry for the devs who build a great mobile version only to be forced to put a stupid "$SITE is better in the app" banner on it.

There’s also companies which seemed to break their Web experience specifically to drive people into the app. Credit Karma hasn’t worked on a browser on mobile or desktop for me in years. But the app version always works.

I guess it’s my fault for trying to use an Intuit product to begin with when I already know they’re evil.

Does Credit Karma's app from last month work too?

This is a reason I also like the web is that after the page loads I can just do stuff instead of getting kicked out to have to update the app ... Or even having to re-log in ...

Fucking Menards and home Depot on mobile are two of the worst websites that exist. They're slow and full of bugs.

Desktop is fine. Mobile sucks. I have to imagine it's intentional to push mobile users towards the app.

Or feature limit the mobile web version.

In both cases, requesting the desktop version (i.e. using a non-mobile user-agent string) will give you back the normal, full-fat web version.

uBlock can stop those, if your device is allowed to have it.

Shoutout to Firefox for Android for being the only mobile browser of note that lets you use uBlock Origin

Edge does as well.

Really? I thought it was a Chromium wrapper and subject to the same nerfing done to it and Chrome.

uBlock Origin Lite is available for Safari on mobile, though that's not exactly the same extension. Orion supports standard uBlock Origin on mobile, but then that's not a browser "of note."

You win this round!

How? Do I need to configure something in uBlock Origin? If I go to, e.g., Reddit I still see the annoying "Open app" button.

Should be in one of the "annoyances" subscriptions.

My guess would be one of those two:

* AdGuard – Mobile App Banners under AdGuard

* EasyList – Notifications under EasyList

And copying text. That's such a killer app for the web that's barely supported in native apps.

It's such a killer feature for the web, some of the more egregious websites try to remove it using JavaScript!

Some corporations just really hate their users, and will never understand why

Yeah, both copying text and the search function, IMO.

What is really stupid is when the app is just a web browser limited to one tab like for Amazon. The web site is better on phones because you can open links in new tabs but you can't in the app even though the app is obviously just displaying the exact same web page.

If a mobile app like that supported tabs AND somehow allowed you to see key things between tabs, you wouldn't even reach for the browser. Crazy how much different that landscape could be if they thought about such a critical use case. My guess is non-power users just look at one offer at a time.

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