What's Wrong With The Web?

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What’s Wrong with the Web?

Opinion by Brian Rinaldi ¾ August 3, 2015 ² 12 Comments
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All of the recent debate invoking the death of the web reminds me
µ ¿ of a classic scene from the movie Top Secret.
¸ ·
Anyone whose been around web development for a while has

seen the web declared dead numerous times. Wired alone
famously declared it dead in 2010 and then, years afterwards,
assured us in 2014 that it was very much, well, not dead.
More recent headlines seem to indicate that if the web isn’t quite
dead, it’s at least on its death bed. In this post, I want to put some
context around these recent arguments as they seem to be based
on two separate but not entirely unrelated issues – performance
and innovation. Let’s break down the problems first, and then I
want to explain why perhaps focusing on innovation can help fix
the problems caused by performance.
The Web is Slow

Facebook’s Instant Articles launch has spurred on the debate that
the web, and, more specifically, the mobile web is too slow to
compete with native apps.
The overall state of the mobile web is

so bad that tech companies have
convinced media companies to publish
convinced media companies to publish
on alternative platforms designed for
better performance on phones. – Nilay
Patel, The Mobile Web Sucks
But, as many have pointed out, Instant Articles and other similar
services such as Flipboard, don’t have some magical new protocols
for retrieving and posting content. They still use HTTP to transfer
the content and HTML to display it, so what exactly does it rely on
to offer the supposedly dramatic performance improvements?
Nilay Patel argues that it is mobile browsers, and specifically

mobile Safari that is the culprit. However, TJ VanToll does a good
job of debunking that argument.
THE PROBLEM WITH ADVERTISING

TJ actually had laid out the argument that the issue wasn’t
browser performance but “cruft,” mostly in the form of advertising,
that was at the root of the performance benefit for services like
Facebook Instant Articles and Flipboard. In fact, Nilay himself
seems to tacitly acknowledge the impact of advertising, while also
claiming it is unavoidable.
@satefan @verge You realize that

"bloat" pays the salaries of editorial,
product, design, video, etc etc etc,
right?
— nilay patel (@reckless) July 20, 2015
According to Les Orchard, viewing a single page on the Verge

entails “over 9.5MB across 263 HTTP requests” (though these
numbers drop on mobile). Of course, these authors are picking on
the Verge because of Nilay’s article, but the Verge is not alone.
Tammy Everts notes how page bloat affects mobile users.
In 2011, the average page served to
mobile was just 390 KB — which, if
you can remember that far back,
actually seemed pretty big at the time.
Today the average page is more than
three times larger than that. – Tammy
Everts, Mobile page bloat: The average
page served to mobile is 3X bigger than
it was four years ago
What are her top two problems facing mobile web site
performance? Images and excessive resource requests. While she
does not specifically blame advertising for either, it is very easy to
see the potential for a connection.
I actually argued many months ago that the content model of the
web is broken. Ads on the web pay terribly and require such a high
volume of traffic, it is hard for most sites to survive. But, as Ben
Thompson points out, the issue is compounded on mobile.
…Mobile display ads stink. Unlike a PC
browser, which has a lot of space to
display ads alongside content, content
on mobile necessarily takes up the
whole screen (and if it doesn’t, the user
experience degrades significantly,
making quality a casualty once again).
This results in mobile ad rates that are
a fraction of desktop ad rates (and
remember, desktop ad rates are already
a fraction of print ad rates) – Ben
Thompson, The Facebook Reckoning.
Rene Ritchie is the editor in chief at iMore, so he should know a

thing or two on this topic, and listen to what he says.
Just as desktop ads pay far less than
old-fashioned print ads, mobile ads pay
far less than desktop. Because phone
displays are smaller than desktop, ads
are also far harder to ignore. They’re
not off to the side or a small strip on a
big screen. They’re in our faces and in
our way.
As more and more people move to

mobile, revenue goes down, and the
typical response is to amp up the ads in
an attempt to mitigate the loss. That, of
course, just makes them even more
annoying. – Rene Ritchie, Content
blockers, bad ads, and what we’re
doing about it
Their solution – build a native app.
Even ignoring the rates, the “ad spend” for mobile doesn’t even
line up with the time spent, meaning there is less pie to slice
anyway.
Image Courtesy of: KPCB
Essentially, the problem with advertising is twofold:
1. Consumers (generally) won’t pay for content;

2. Poor ad performance and a misalignment of dollars to time
spent, means advertising doesn’t pay for content;
There’s no easy fix for #1, so sites have opted for fixing #2 by
creating more (and typically lower quality) content and filling those
pages with ever more ads, making the experience, especially on
mobile, slow and poor.
EMULATING NATIVE
Ads, and their associated cruft, are not the only culprit being
blamed for the poor performance of the web. In fact, ad-related
cruft really only affects a subset of sites, mostly around news and
media. Performance has become a problem even on sites without
ad-related problems. For this, blame has fallen on two issues:
1. The ever growing list of web platform features and the libraries
needed to deal with these features across browsers;
2. The growth in web frameworks like Angular, Ember and React.
In both cases, the arguments have centered around the impulse of

web developers to try to emulate native app features in the
browser in order to compete.
The big takeaway from Instant Articles

is that we learned the wrong lesson
from the rise of mobile and the app
ecosystem. We’ve spent far too long
trying to compete with native
experiences by making our websites
look and behave like apps – Jim Ray,
Lessons From Instant Articles
THE EVER-CHANGING BROWSER

The desire to emulate native has led to a raft of new APIs in the
browser that attempt to allow access to device features or recreate
UI interactions that are common in native applications. Developers,
eager to use these features, end up relying on tools and polyfills to
ensure that they work across browsers and versions.
We get ever more features that become

ever more complex and need ever more
polyfills and other tools to function —
tools that are part of the problem, and
not of the solution. – PPK, Stop
pushing the web forward
In fact, PPK has called for a moratorium on new browser features

for a year. He says that web versus native is a false dichotomy.
The web cannot emulate native

The web cannot emulate native
perfectly, and it never will. Native apps
talk directly to the operating system,
while web apps talk to the browser,
which talks to the OS. Thus there’s an
extra layer web apps have to pass, and
that makes them slightly slower and
coarser than native apps. This problem
is unsolvable. – PPK, Web vs. native:
let’s concede defeat
This issue is not new though. The idea that the web could be the
operating system has been around for some time. For instance, as
early as 1997, Peter Kropf, John Plaice and Herwig Unger proposed
a web operating system(PDF). While the nature of the debate has
changed, the fundamental desire of web developers to have full
access to native OS functionality remains.
THE FRAMEWORK BINGE
We complained for years that browsers
couldn’t do layout and javascript
consistently. As soon as that got fixed,
we got busy writing libraries that
reimplemented the browser within
itself, only slower. – Maciej Cegłowski,
Web Design: The First 100 Years
I’d argue, the rise of frameworks has been less specifically about
the need to emulate native apps and more about the desire to
emulate native development. As developers flocked to the client-
side JavaScript development from other languages like Java, Ruby
and PHP, they brought with them concepts on developing
applications that had no ready counterpart on the web. Many of
the popular frameworks take inspiration from frameworks that
were widely used in server-side languages.
But, in many cases, frameworks have become a crutch. New

developers don’t often learn “web development” as much as they
learn “Angular development” or “Ember development,” all the
while remaining entirely unaware of the potential issues they are
inviting into their applications.
I think it’s also true that web

developers tend to rely heavily on
frameworks, sometimes without
understanding the cost/benefit
tradeoffs in order to use them
judiciously. – Chris Wilson, The Web is
not Poor Man’s Native
This can lead to unintended and needless consequences, as Baldur

Bjarnason notes:
The web doesn’t suck. Your websites

The web doesn’t suck. Your websites
suck.
All of your websites suck.
You destroy basic usability by

hijacking the scrollbar. You take native
functionality (scrolling, selection, links,
loading) that is fast and efficient and
you rewrite it with ‘cutting edge’
javascript toolkits and frameworks so
that it is slow and buggy and broken.
You balloon your websites with
megabytes of cruft. You ignore best
practices. You take something that
works and is complementary to your
business and turn it into a liability. –
Baldur Bjarnason, Facebook and the
media:
united, they attack the web
The framework problem can be compounded by an increasingly
type of developer that Christian Heilmann has recently termed the
“Full StackOverflow Developer.” The answer to the the
StackOverflow question invariably invokes a framework or library:
The entire culture dominant among

web developers today is bizarrely
framework-heavy, with seemingly no
thought given to minimizing
dependencies and page weight. Most
times I land on a Stack Overflow page
with a simple Javascript question, the
highest-voted answer is “Just include
[framework X] and then call this
function,” even though a few posts
beneath it is a perfectly suitable,
beneath it is a perfectly suitable,
standalone 10-line function. – Marco
Arment, PPK on web-development
tools
Duncan Wilcox concurs, but thinks it’s HTML and CSS fault for
making web development seem easy and approachable.
As much as it might sound like a

paradox, HTML and CSS are holding
the web back, not because they’re
badly designed or managed (though I
believe they are), rather because they
project the perception that web
development is easy and approachable
even with a half hour online course and
frantically searching stackoverflow
frantically searching stackoverflow
when you need to work around a
browser bug. – Duncan Wilcox, HTML
and CSS are holding the web back
A Lack of Innovation
sometimes when the internet is boring

I get on my phone, as if it contains a
different internet that will be less
boring
— tumblr af (@tumbIraf) July 30, 2015
It seems clear that the cruft that has built up in recent years due to
a combination of ads, libraries and frameworks is hurting the web.
Even the people who work on the web no longer seem to enjoy it.
As you can see from the many quotes throughout this article, there
seems to be a pervasive pessimism about the direction and future
of the web. Perhaps this is partly the reason why the web, today,
seems boring. As I said in that post, the contradiction is that “the
web was actually much more fun back when it was also horribly
slow (most of us were on dial-up after all).”
Innovation seems to be happening in apps. The list of popular

services that went with a native app is long and ever-growing –
Periscope, WhatsApp and Instagram, to name just a few. In many
cases, services that do have fully-functional web sites still insist on
pushing you to their native app alternative nonetheless.
Innovation seems to be happening in devices. I’m not talking the

Apple Watches, but the many things, from connected home
devices to any number of internet-connected toys and accessories.
Just browse Kickstarter and you’ll see what I mean.
These areas have inherited the fun, experimental spirit of the early
web. They have a similar ethos to what Amber Case reflected in
discussing the early(ish) years of the web:
These early adopters brought this spirit
with them when they helped power
earlier tech booms in the mid- to late
’90s, and you can see it reflected in
many websites from that period — the
Web as a playground, full of interesting
(if sometimes silly) experiments, toys
and DIY inventions. – Amber Case,
Why We All Need to Make the Internet
Fun Again
Perhaps, as she says, web development has just become a career

opportunity – a paycheck. But maybe therein lies a solution to the
malaise that is affecting the community. Maybe, the solution to the
problems plaguing the web is to focus on what we want to build
again – rather than how we are building it. Most of the debate has
centered on how we build things – use a framework; don’t use a
framework; use new APIs; there’s too many APIs. What if the
problem lies in the fact that we aren’t building things we love?
Call me a naive idealist if you want, but maybe if we get back to

building fun and exciting things again, the rest will solve itself.
Header image courtesy of Duane Schoon
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Brian Rinaldi
Brian Rinaldi is the Developer Programs
Manager at Telerik focused on ensuring that
the Developer Relations team creates top notch
content for the web development community
on the Telerik Developer Network. Brian also
serves as co-editor of Mobile Web Weekly and authored a report on Static
Site Generators for O'Reilly. You can follow Brian via @remotesynth on
Twitter.
COMMENTS
12 Comments Telerik Developer Network
 Recommend 1 ⤤ Share
Join the discussion…
MichelChartrand • 8 months ago

What really helps compound the problem are those websites that insist on showing one image per page, like 'here
are 25 things you should be doing...' and each page is so cluttered with ads and crap.
1△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
wlp1s0 • 8 months ago

I hate the web emulating native apps. But unfortunately it isn't going to stop in near future...
1△ ▽
burkeholland • 8 months ago

Man - that was a good one.
Developers get bored if we don't have something to bitch about and proclaim the death of. We have a morbid
obsession with being the first to say "See! I told you you were doing it wrong".
Since we run this site together, let me also point out that proclaiming the death of the web, or telling people to stop
adding features or saying that the web sucks is incendiary. Which means, as authors and publishers, we can get a
of the developers looking for the next apocalypse to show up and read our content. Which in turn helps our traffic,
which is ultimately what we want: more attention.
I just wanted to point out that if we're being honest here, each of these proclamations is predicated mostly on
circumstantial evidence that is largely a matter of opinion. Your last statement is the one that is what we should be
doing, and that's building amazing things for the web. Negativity and creativity make terrible bedfellows.
Richard Lerner • 8 months ago

I agree. The web has stopped being useful and there are so many things being loaded on when you open a page th
I am starting to dread when I want to see what's happening in the world.
The web started off as a place to do things efficiently and now it has become a circus tent of distractions.
Mr. D > Richard Lerner • 8 months ago

Use "noscript" add-on, for Mozilla Firefox. It enables me to allow one script and deny all other 30 scripts whic
increase page load time by ten folds.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
jmetcher • 8 months ago
Maybe the web is in trouble because we're using a crap language on horrifically bad runtimes?
had to say it.
When my web browser uses more memory and CPU than a full Windows VM running SQL Server, that's got to tell
you something. The JS library bloat is real, but you could hardly claim that Windows is paragon of hand-tuned
efficiency either.
BTW, nice article. I do agree with most of the points raised.
sppericat • 8 months ago

the real problem with the web is the fact that people who do not know what to do with it started not only using, but
also building things for it... it should have stayed a tool for researchers and people who actually know what to do wit
a computer.
Brian_Balke • 8 months ago

Somehow I have the dark feeling that the desire to "build cool things" is what drives the proliferation of cruft and
native functionality. The former because it's how salaries are paid, and the later because there's always something
cool that could be done "if only..."
Unka_George • 8 months ago

... that the issue wasn’t browser performance but “cruft,” mostly in the
form of advertising, that was at the root of the performance benefit for
services...
Indeed! To the
open in browser PRO version
point that several services had become almost unusable on my computers in that they took
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
so long
pdfcrowd.com
Indeed! To the point that several services had become almost unusable on my computers in that they took so long
[re]load and were auto-refreshed, even with an upgrade to my wireless internet connection bandwidth.
repeated virus scans and hardware checks to determine the reason for the continual slowdown and was considerin
the replacement of my computers when I came across an article about ad [and more] blocking browser ad-ins.
of these are free for the download . These seem to have solved my computer performance problem.
The one I use is Ghostery, but there are many others.

https://www.ghostery.com/en/tr...
roger tubby • 8 months ago

The web is really just becoming
another client-server model with JS/CSS replacing the old 1980-style
apps with web-based ones. The presentation may be supplied by HTML or
on-the-fly rendering in the browser and the old proprietary data streams
with new (proprietary) JSON/etc. streams. Native apps (20xx-style)
naturally have better capabilities at the cost of re-implementation
every time the platform or major version changes. I remember working on
old 24x80 "intelligent" screens (3270, etc.) that saw an awful lot of
changes in the 20+ years that they were around.
I bet we'll continue to see this leap-frogging of capabilities and resource demands
as long as there are humans, UIs, and computers. It'll be fun to look
back in another 20.
dave • 8 months ago

Excellent. Your last sentence is the answer.
"Call me a naive idealist if you want, but maybe if we get back to building fun and exciting things again, the rest will
solve itself."
I was just writing almost exactly this in a thread on Facebook about What's Wrong With Twitter.
"There are a lot of things that could be done to shakeup twitter and provide users with some fresh functionality to
explore. Because that's what I think we all loved about Twitter, the chance to do new things. I love the network, the
combination of people, software, ideas and data. Twitter got stagnant. That's the real problem. Almost any change
that opened up new functionality for people to explore that allowed them to connect with other people in new
interesting and meaningful ways would rekindle the spark that twitter used to be."
You could just do a global replace "Twitter" with "the web."
I want smart people to play with. Basically that's it.
Dave
Lucian • 8 months ago

sublevel.net is a lightweight social network that is innovative in all sorts of ways. So, yeah, the web is still alive and
well.
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Paulo Morgado —
Victor Nascimento — Great post TJ! It's amazing to see string when there
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25 comments • 23 days ago 20 comments • 3 months ago
cody lindley — In a nutshell: Ten kids are playing a Kris Immig — Great
game of kickball. One kids gets upset about … sounds very interesting.
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¹ TOPICS ³ COMMUNITY ¼ RSS ´ Telerik.

What’s Wrong with the Web?

Anyone whose been around web development for a while has

The Web is Slow

The overall state of the mobile web is

Nilay Patel argues that it is mobile browsers, and specifically

THE PROBLEM WITH ADVERTISING

@satefan @verge You realize that

— nilay patel (@reckless) July 20, 2015

According to Les Orchard, viewing a single page on the Verge

Rene Ritchie is the editor in chief at iMore, so he should know a

As more and more people move to

Essentially, the problem with advertising is twofold:

1. Consumers (generally) won’t pay for content;

In both cases, the arguments have centered around the impulse of

The big takeaway from Instant Articles

THE EVER-CHANGING BROWSER

We get ever more features that become

In fact, PPK has called for a moratorium on new browser features

The web cannot emulate native

THE FRAMEWORK BINGE

But, in many cases, frameworks have become a crutch. New

I think it’s also true that web

This can lead to unintended and needless consequences, as Baldur

The web doesn’t suck. Your websites

All of your websites suck.

You destroy basic usability by

The entire culture dominant among

As much as it might sound like a

sometimes when the internet is boring

— tumblr af (@tumbIraf) July 30, 2015

Innovation seems to be happening in apps. The list of popular

Innovation seems to be happening in devices. I’m not talking the

Perhaps, as she says, web development has just become a career

Call me a naive idealist if you want, but maybe if we get back to

Header image courtesy of Duane Schoon

Join the discussion…

MichelChartrand • 8 months ago

wlp1s0 • 8 months ago

burkeholland • 8 months ago

Richard Lerner • 8 months ago

Mr. D > Richard Lerner • 8 months ago

sppericat • 8 months ago

Brian_Balke • 8 months ago

Unka_George • 8 months ago

The one I use is Ghostery, but there are many others.

roger tubby • 8 months ago

dave • 8 months ago

You could just do a global replace "Twitter" with "the web."

I want smart people to play with. Basically that's it.

Lucian • 8 months ago

ALSO ON TELERIK DEVELOPER NETWORK

Is left-pad Indicative of a Fragile JavaScript Front-end Application Libraries and Component

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