The Death of the Open Web?
It is a peculiar kind of tragedy to watch the thing you love be dismantled for parts, sold off as scrap, and then have the very people doing the dismantling throw up their hands and ask who could have possibly let this happen. The web I fell in love with is fading, and I think we all know who is holding the smoking gun.
Firefox, once the stalwart defender of the open web, is now busily integrating AI summarization features that, on mobile at least, are as easy to accidentally trigger as they are wasteful. This comes alongside a new fondness for chatbots, a noticeable uptick in in-browser advertising, and a quiet embrace of tracking. It feels like a betrayal from an old friend. Another betrayal. The latest in a long series of betrayals that have been on the rise since the launch of the Chrome browser.
Chrome, a product of the world’s largest advertising company, has never been a friend to the open web. It has now effectively rendered adblocking non-functional (yes, there’s currently a workaround. No, there will not always be a workaround), a move that surprises no one but disappoints everyone. Chrome’s entire existence is a conflict of interest, a browser designed to keep you on a page full of ads, not to take you to the destination you sought.
Safari is not innocent either, making its own overtures towards the same trifecta of advertising, surveillance, and AI. Meanwhile, The Browser Company and their Arc browser were just purchased by Atlasian, with promises to outdo everyone else in “Advanced AI” features. We can already see the future this builds: a browser that makes untrustworthy assumptions, reinforces stereotypes, and slowly erodes a user’s ability to think critically.
Every other mainstream browser is a derivative of Chrome or Firefox, built by teams without the funding to keep pace. The result is a landscape of browsers that are perpetually behind, vulnerable, and ultimately unsustainable.
In a recent court filing, Google itself conceded that the open web is in “rapid decline.” The irony is so thick you could choke on it. This is the man in the hotdog suit, pointing at the crowd, asking who could have done this. Google is the architect of this decline. Mozilla has been a complacent accomplice, and the W3C seems to only listen to the whims of corporate giants.
Long before their AI push, Google was already doing everything in its power to keep users on its search results page, surrounded by ads, rather than encouraging them to click through to the actual websites that provided the information. This practice has been systematically killing websites and small businesses for years. It’s also very much a situation of Google eating their own seedcorn, and ultimately starving the businesses who’s free labor built them.
The web as a democratized publishing platform is on life support, and the browser makers seem desperate to pull the plug.
Now What?
If we want an open web to survive, we will have to be the ones to save it. This means a conscious return to publishing real websites. It means a revival of RSS. It means building a web so simple and straightforward that a browser like Netsurf, Lynx, or Dillo is all you need to view it. It means seeking out and supporting alternative search engines like Marginalia, and making a deliberate effort to disentangle our digital lives from the grip of Big Tech.
We can preserve the web as a place for community media and for the distribution of small things, but it will require a dedicated and intentional effort from all of us. Publishers must return to building simpler websites, free of burdensome tracking and bloated JavaScript. Readers must embrace simpler browsers that do not spy on them or lie to them.
I did not mention the Gemini protocol above. I like Gemini. I think it is a neat idea, a supplementary web protocol that is non-commercial and intentionally less flexible. I have been advocating for such things for years (see: Observations on Modern Computing or Steps towards a web without the internet or Remembering the web that wasn’t or even Reviving the BBS.) But the name “Gemini” has been poisoned by Google, making discovery nearly impossible. Gemspace also suffers from a severe chicken and egg problem: not enough content to attract readers, not enough readers to justify creating content. The network effects of the modern web are a powerful gravity that something like Gemini may never escape.
I like the web a lot. Or at least, I liked what it was. I do not want to see it disappear behind a paywall. I do not want to be tracked everywhere I go. I do not want my browser to waste hours of electricity to incorrectly summarize an article because I accidentally shook my phone.
So I am spending more time in simpler browsers. I have been enjoying Kristall, which supports basic HTML, Gemini, Gopher, and Finger.
I am working on directories and webrings to help with content discovery.
I am making a concerted effort to spend more time and energy posting on the open web, and not inside various social media panopticons.
Join me, won’t you?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider signing up for my newsletter. or following me on Mastodon.