Google bedshat the Internet

[prime]

Earlier this month, Danluu.com released an exhaustive 23-page analysis/op-ed/manifesto on the current status of unoptimized web pages and web app performance, finding that just loading a web page can even bog down an entry-level device that can run the popular game PUBG at 40 fps. In fact, the Wix webpage requires loading 21MB of data for one page, while the more famous websites Patreon and Threads load 13MB of data for one page. This can result in slow load times that reach up to 33 seconds or, in some cases, result in the page failing to load at all.


That example is most likely the best summation of the overall point, which is that modern web and app design is increasingly trending toward an unrealistic assumption of ever-increasing bandwidth and processing.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/03/19/218216/modern-web-bloat-means-some-pages-load-21mb-of-data

HTML email has some obvious disadvantages, such as less security due to hiding links and loading remote media. An incidental problem is that, unlike web browsers, email clients/apps do not follow web standards — each one renders HTML differently, which makes the design of newsletter layouts, for example, a hellish endeavor.

Another problem with HTML is that messages in this format are heavier, because they have invisible parts (headers and the HTML code itself) and visible (images, in particular) that the pure text counterpart doesn't have.

I've been writing emails in plain text for a few years. I'd love to be able to read them like that too. I can set up my favorite font and read without distractions.

https://notes.ghed.in/posts/2024/plain-text-email/

[prime]

Formerly thriving companies bought and killed by Google:
https://killedbygoogle.com/

And Raghavan -- a manager, hired by Sundar Pichai, a former McKinsey man and a manager by trade -- is an example of everything wrong with the tech industry. Despite his history as a true computer scientist with actual academic credentials, Raghavan chose to bulldoze actual workers and replace them with toadies that would make Google more profitable and less useful to the world at large. Since Prabhakar took the reins in 2020, Google Search has dramatically declined, with the numerous "core" search updates allegedly made to improve the quality of results having an adverse effect, increasing the prevalence of spammy, search engine optimized content.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/04/24/1641235/the-man-who-killed-google-search