What features and/or technologies would u like to see in a web browser ?
And what features and/or technologies you'd rather not see in a web browser
Lets make this interesting: you can imagine features ( there's no wrong answers ) , its not just about features that you already saw in other browsers
I want the most basic, minimal, light browser ever built with a well thought out extension framework. I want almost nothing built in.
So like back to the '90s with Netscape Navigatior and its plugins?
Or iCab of the late 90s.
Honestly I donβt think itβs much to ask to make the browser as lean as possible and have development focused on browsing and leave most of the rest to extensions. Itβs kind more like where we were 14 years ago.
Edit: Features I wouldnβt mind built in would be much like what vibi suggested. Built in volume control , per tab. Stuff like that makes sense.
This is what gemini is about.
The thing I want natively is a built-in way to control volume per tab- not just mute, not through a plugin... Just a simple volume slider that works.
This would be a nice feature.
Containers?
'Multi-Account Containers': https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers
With it, you can open tabs in different 'containers', which have their own set of cookies, etc.. So, for example, you can be logged into two accounts for the same website, just in different containers, or keep all your shopping accounts in one container (and set those sites to always open in that container) to reduce tracking and targeting.
Synchronized favorites is pretty nice too.
About synchronization, one i've never seen is tabs, being able to open any tabs on one device to another. Maybe the clipboard too could also be useful to share link/text to another device...
I wanted to make coffee. Not a coffee maker that has a web browser - a web browser that can make coffee.
Extension on HTTP 418 I'm a Teapot
"Would you like some cookies with your coffee?"
I want the old animated Netscape logo in the corner back
π
Them were't dairz
In part that's on YouTube and their bandwidth saving measures.
Data saving option for mobile netwerk , and website's RSS feed finder , webpage translation too .... As for what I don't want to see : big installation size , ugly design and tracking
website's RSS feed finder
On Firefox, the RSSHubRadar extension is useful for that.
The feature being available by default in browsers would be cool
if i open a site that ive opened x times this week/month a popup appears that says "no" then the pc shuts down and cannot be turned on for 3 hours.
I believe most would prefer a modular approach with a well built extension and addon framework.
Iβd prefer the web browser to be good at web browsing. Excellent software already exists that does all of that.
Dear god no
bring back flash
There are really good reasons flash died. If you're desperate for flash content, use ruffle.
Upvoted for the tamagotchi / virtual pets. The other stuff, too, but mostly the virtual pets.
ftp
It's crazy that Firefox was good with ftp until they just decided to not support it anymore π
On android...Firefox refreshes the page any time you go to another tab or app and come back. That drives me batshit.
It rather sounds like too little free RAM or too agressive RAM management (frequent on Chinese phones) forcing Firefox to kill the tab as soon as you leave it.
For my own use RAM management shouldn't be a thing, i want all my apps to either stay loaded or just crash completely.
Can confirm it's not a thing that's happening on my pixel and hasn't happened on any of my android phones so far.
Personally, I'd be happy with a web browser that doesn't make me jump through hoops to access a HTTPS site with certificate errors on a local IP address.
I don't care if 192.168.1.1 is using a self-signed certificate. I just want to configure my fucking router.
Dark theme and accessible color contrast enforced by default.
If the site owner makes stupid choices, my browser should ignore them.
Edit: And an automatic switch to light theme if I decode to print something, obviously. I wasn't raised in a barn.
I really just want web browsers to die, and be replaced by one of the slimmed down options like gemini, gopher, or some markdown viewer.
The web just keeps getting increasingly bloated and ad-ridden, and filled with popups. Web browsers are as complex as entire operating systems now, so only 2 orgs (google and mozilla) have the resources and expertise to build a browser, and mozilla might throw in the towel eventually, leaving the internet as one big google ad.
IE move viewing of mostly static content into these simple variants like gemini, and move dynamic things to local apps with API access.
they can do more than viewing websites
The question is: should they? There is a larger philosophical divide about whether software tools should be small and purpose-built, or monolithic. Having one do-it-all tool can be convenient but also creates a huge amount of overhead and complexity.
I go back and forth myself. I love the convenience of monolithic tools, but miss the way a small, purpose-built tool can really do its job well.
They shouldn't be doing any of those things, html should be for simple, static content only.
For dynamic / interactive things, programmers should write programs again like they used to.
background/defocused tabs are 'paused' by default.
paused meaning no runtime execution of scripts or anything else.
firstly, there's always some security and plenty of privacy mischief around focus.
secondly, it's almost always wasting cycles, so its just wasteful of resources and energy.
ofc with some option for you to eg. right-click on a tab and mark it as 'runtime in background' or something, for webmail or messengers etc which you do want runtime.
but it should essentially be whitelisted.
i've actually played with this in the firefox debugger and it essentially appears feasible so really hope this feature comes oneday - or i finally get some time to look into making an addon for it.
how so?
check here for some basic examples. eg. it can be used to leak info from one context to another.
there's ofc legit uses for it too, which is why i argue for user intervention.
chromium based browsers behave like that if Iβm not mistaken
i may be wrong? but my understanding is they'll currently limit resources, but execution still takes place? that's definitely useful, but my argument is for for an option where CPU resources be limited to 0 in background (without user intervention).
I'd like to be able to link a web app and its mobile app (lemmy.world and Jerboa for example). And to set a limit to the amount of time I spend on the pair. And have that sync across all my devices.
I spend too much time on Lemmy. And I do use an app timer on my phone. I need the website to take away from that same timer as well. When I use the website on my phone and on my laptop. I'm happy to make this clearer.
A limit of data that can be used daily and we can track how much data we consume.
A little discrete "progress bar" at the bottom of the toolbar would be cool to see in the blink of an eye where I am on my daily limit.
I want regex find. I'm fairly certain firefox used to have it, but no longer seems to.
I have a vague memory of this but it might have been an extension.
Iβm still looking for the browser with the best tab design and management (sync across devices being a requirement). Arc was pretty good in this regard, but the AI stuff was too obnoxious for me. Now Iβm back to Safari.
Blacklist-based ad blocking.
I don't mind ads when they're reasonable. If it helps fund your website at all, advertise away. But when there's a sticky banner plus an autoplay video ad reducing my mobile viewport to a ridiculous degree, and the X buttons are too small to click and ad loading completely breaks the search bar until it's done (hi fandom wiki) I want to be able to say "fuck these ads in particular"
As an addition to the translation tool (context menu in Firefox) it would be nice to have a conversion tool for the conversion of temperatures and lengths. I know there are addons for this purpose, but last time i checked they weren't good or they were a hassle to use. Opera nailed it a few years ago with a little pop-up window when text got highlighted. It recognized when it was a SI unit. This is a feature that I have not seen in any other browser yet.