Cleaning the Other Side of the Browser

It's a messy world. The new generation of browsers are cleaning it up a bit; they are actively pairing down the amount of administrative chrome that surrounds the content. And that's great, because it makes half of the web better.

It’s a messy world. The new generation of browsers are cleaning it up a bit; they are actively pairing down the amount of administrative chrome that surrounds the content. And that’s great, because it makes half of the web better. But it doesn’t make the web better, it only makes the browser better. It’s still mostly the same web. It’s the web with too many irrelevant advertisements. Too many sites with clutter. Too much bad typography. Bad suggestion engines and search results. So, accepting that each website is like a public toilet stall, with whatever has been scrawled on it, what happens if everyone is given a marker? Some sites have tried that. Readability tries to pare down any site to just the content. There are also things like Greasemonkey and Stylish, allowing users to apply their own scripts and styles to pages. But these things rely on the current version of sites. They are subject to breakage, and the site owners want you to view it the way they say. That’s an older problem. Some religions wanted you to look at things their way, to the point where they controlled the availability of sacred texts or the ability to read them. Kings used to have the power, but even when democracy took hold there were countless attempts to control who voted and ran for office. It’s worth pondering though. We need to clean the other side of the browser, from bad path design to clutter to typography. Too much dictated design makes the web less useful, and it stifles the spread of information.

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