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Comment by JustSomeNobody | Hacker News Reader

He blames mobile browsers for at least half the article (I had to stop reading). Sure, mobile browsers may not be great, but web sites these days seem to be written by people who just don't give a shit. Their hipster attitude is ruining people's experience.

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I agree. I've wanted to write my own blog post about the things that suck about Mobile web, it's not the device or the software (typically), it's the way websites are designed (or not) for phones that sucks. You get advertisements that hijack all your screen real estate, open up the Android Market out of nowhere (why do they have this much priviledge? That shouldn't happen on the desktop without asking for permission). There's also the hell of being redirected to a websites "mobile" friendly site, only they redirect you to the home page, not the mobile version of the content you were trying to get to (seriously?) I mean there's so much. I usually have to ask for the desktop version of websites, and this is ignoring JavaScript that jacks up your resources and flash based content. Try triggering OnMouseOver on mobile as well. Lots of warts to browsing the internet on a Mobile phone.

I hate how helpless I feel when using a phone. This website wants to open the App Store? Guess I have to let it. I was hoping this was at least a little better on the Android side of things, but maybe not. Sigh.

> open up the Android Market out of nowhere (why do they have this much priviledge? That shouldn't happen on the desktop without asking for permission).

This is based on how Android browsers handle URLs to the Play Store. Some browsers (like Firefox) don't do this automatically (at least for me); instead, they'll just present you with the web page version of the Play Store (as if you were on a desktop), but with an icon in the address bar indicating that you can open the URL in the Play Store instead.

But yeah. The mobile web is a hellhole. My "favorite" is when a site will throw a browser dialog asking to install the app version of their site.

I feel like web developers nowadays are treating XKCDs #1174 [0] and #869 [1] as sincere, genuine advice instead of the scathing observations and condemnations they are of mobile web behavior.

[0]: https://xkcd.com/1174/

[1]: https://xkcd.com/869/

> My "favorite" is when a site will throw a browser dialog asking to install the app version of their site.

Yes! If I wanted the app I wouldn't be on a browser!

Mobile browsers are fine. The problem is that the A9 processors from a generation ago (and current low-end phones) have similar processing power to an old Pentium 4 processor (with less bandwidth and RAM). Put the same website behind something running an A57 and watch those intolerable numbers become reasonably acceptable for a >3W processor. Don't blame the browser, blame ARM.

Mobile processors are slow because Moore's Law is grinding to a halt. I think we should blame the process engineers, but the process engineers are being halted by the size of atoms and weird quantum mechanics issues.

Nilay, don't blame browsers, blame the universe.

(or alternately, blame your inefficient website).

It's not a question of CPU power, it's shittycrap designed websites that push everything to the browser.

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