I tried looking at the reviews for a monitor, and when I clicked “see more reviews” I got redirected to a page asking me to login and to provide my mobile phone number (which I didn’t do for privacy reasons).
On Instagram I was confused at everyone else mentioning Instagram stories because I only have the option of uploading pictures and videos. Then I found out that it’s something you can only do if you use Instagram on a phone… I swear I’ve came across a few sites that wouldn’t even let you sign up if you were using a PC
I only ever browse social media on a PC and that’s the way it will always be. Sometimes I can’t help but feel like desktop/computer users are becoming an afterthought. Anyone else have similar feelings? 🫠
I think they get more data from your usage on mobile.
yep. tons of telemetry.
Even moreso for apps, you can still retain some control through Firefox and others on mobile, but it’s still limited.
They want to push people to apps because you have no control over how you view the site, unlike on a traditional web browser where you can tweak such things and block advertiser connections.
I think it’s also that just significantly more people own a phone than a laptop.
It’s like those demographics maps that are really just population maps.
Phones have web browsers. You can view websites easily from your phone.
Apps give them access to everything. You can request access to contact lists, even, and most people won’t even think twice to allowing access.
If companies really designed sites and apps thinking on the majority of people they would make their software as lightweight as possible, so that they could run fine on cheaper hardware
Fucking seeeeeerrrioussslyyy dude I remember when GoogleTalk took 8 megabytes of RAM. Discord at minimum takes about 200mb.
Ayup. Iphones at least sandbox, but even then, you’re still talking a sieve over a bucket leak-wise
no. its one of my pet peeves that we spent decades creating sites with dynamic viewports (mobile friendly/any screen size) only for kids to wonder where the ‘app’ is for your site.
and conversely, server products created with such minimal features as to require an external app to fulfill basic functionality.
god i hate apps.
Fret not! Lots and lots of apps are just PWAs packaged into thin wrappers so they can be distributed through an app store. Humanity gets all, or at least most, of the benefits of the web with unmatched cross-platform support, and our Grandmothers and 12 year olds still get to tap on the Spotify and Starbucks icons. Win-win!
I’d way rather use a pwa than an election/react native/whatever app
there is NO social media that’s worth getting frustrated over
the first time a site does something stupid (“enter your ph # to continue!” or “disable your adblocker to continue!”) i’m out and never going back. the internet exists to provide me with things, not the other way around
This shouldn’t really be surprising, I’d think most people’s internet usage is probably on their phone, and has been for some time.
People don’t want to sit at a desk or whatever and browse or do their socials stuff, they want to do it sat on the sofa while the TV is on or in between chores in the house.
I think the last two companies I’ve worked for, both B2C have had mobile web and app usage way higher than desktop web.
It’s all attempts at vendor lock-in because phones are more locked down than computers and more people only have just a phone.
It’s up there with how I think Youtube/Tiktok videos are an absolutely terrible way to explore deep problems.
If I have to watch a three hour video with only spoken references, I’m sorry, I’d way rather have a 300-page document with figures, graphs, and most fucking importantly god damned footnotes and endnotes.
Especially since this is the fucking internet that was built on hypertext which is like a footnote on steroids since you can directly link to the original document instead of just referencing it.
Videos are fine for lots of things, but not always long-form deep-dives into difficult and complex subjects. Often it makes sense to have a video in a lecture set up, if you’re actually trying to educate people and not just inform them, but otherwise text does fine for research.
Fuck apps and their spyware bullshit, fuck all knowledge being in videos you can’t footnote, fuck trying to turn the internet into a one-way-medium like cable TV.
It’s because the apps work as black boxes stopping the end user from blocking their telemetry, advertising and tracking.
What I hate more is how companies deliberately add blocks to their websites if you’re on mobile so as to force the user to download the app.
Two of the most egregious samples I’ve seen so far is Microsoft teams that shows a banner saying “this browser is not supported”, but switching your user agent or enabling desktop mode from within your phone’s browser makes it work perfectly fine.
Another is Facebook (yuck) which displays a fake loading bar that never finishes unless you trick it the same way as with teams. Their mobile site prevents you from posting anything, commenting, viewing random posts, uploading files, or seeing notifications. If you don’t have the app installed, you’re essentially locked out of messenger because it is reluctant at opening any shared files or posts as that has to be opened through the facebook app (obviously). What’s worse is I’m prompted to log in to Facebook every time I open any link Facebook or not from within messenger.
I’d love to fully uninstall meta’s apps but I have family members that only use their apps (fuck the networking effect)
Another bad one is reddit. The amount it pushes the mobile interface while on mobile is painful, but switch to desktop mode and it all goes away.
I don’t go on it a lot anymore, but when I do it’s typically from my phone and its really gotten worse.
Shoutout to spotify who have a perfectly functional HTTP interface that inexplicably breaks when viewed on a phone. I end up using a modded client.
Facebook on mobile web is buggy AF, but the adblocker works so it’s still better.
I’d honestly love a wall of shame for websites and “tech products” that showcases their hostility to users trying to circumvent their tracking
Louis Rossmann just launched a database for something related to that. Go check it out, it might be what you’re looking for.
Yes, I hate it. In fact, I hate most of the impact of smartphones on the internet:
- I’m not giving you my phone number. Shu’up. Stop asking.
- I’m not installing your broken browser made for a single site. Aka, your “app”. And if you don’t let me check your site without that “app”, I am not doing it.
- Smart web devs can deal with different screen ratios, but those are a minority. So guess what - I get blank space on both sides of my screen!
- I’ve noticed (based on myself + acquaintances) that people have worse basic reading comprehension when using a phone than a computer. And I’m tempted to blame the sorry state of social media partially on that.
I’m also frustrated. But at work the other day I learned that like 75% of our usage is from mobile phone users. Sometimes you just have to realize you’re in the minority; and that other people will make bad choices.
It’s interesting that you mentioned the term minority, because I find it so ironic that companies invest a lot in marketing how they care about minorities, but then any userbase that isn’t the biggest one is abandoned with a fuck you and a middle finger.
On Instagram
Funny you describe all the annoyances of web vs mobile, but visit this awful site. Instagram wont let me see anything at all, web, mobile or otherwise because I don’t and won’t have an account.
Maybe avoiding social media all together is a better idea.
Use RTINGS next time for electronics reviews. They’re so much more in-depth than any other review site; they test every single aspect of the products and lay out the info in a manner that’s easy to understand, while still providing all the technical jargon for geeks like me. And no mobile number needed, either. The site is well-optimized for desktop.
Hi sorry for my late reply! I just checked that site out and it’s so in depth and goes into detail about so many parameters that aren’t typically listed on the sites I buy them from, and I’ll be using this site to check reviews if I want to buy a new monitor. Thank you! 😃
They don’t prioritize mobile users, they prioritize mobile apps - easier to track and gather telemetry, easier to show ads (harder to use adblock), easier to send notifications, you can expect the user to return if they already downloaded an app.
I’m more upset that RSS is dying off.
check out pixelfed its like instagram but on the fediverse and its been in browser up until the app released only yesterday so you can do both now but browser is where its at
I made a Pixelfed art account a while ago and I think it’s pretty good! The site’s very responsive and I prefer it over Instagram. Pixelfed has been experiencing an influx of new users lately too which is great! Do you have an account there?
I mean, its been more than a decade since mobile traffic overtook desktop web traffic. So yeah, it makes sense to prioritize mobile especially if they can get you to install their (spyware)app.
I’m sure it is a different ratio for things like B2B.
What does my head in as someone with a large monitor is even the desktop site is formatted in a way that only takes 1/3 of the space i have. My old blind arse has that extra space for a reason
You mean the narrow kinda look? I also have a large monitor and prefer the bigger/wider versions too since I find it easier on the eyes and it looks less weird. I know UI design isn’t easy but it’d be nice if there was an option for that for the reason you mention.
Yeh right in the center of the screen in a column. Bonus hate if there’s no dark mode.
Think it annoys me more as I work for a Web app company in infrastructure and know there’s some tricks to make it look decent enough.
That said I bitched and moaned for a dark mode for our internal instance before they did anything about it.
I’m sure you know about browser extensions like Dark Reader that can force websites to be dark mode. ( I wish it could work beyond the browser as well )
Yeh right in the center of the screen in a column.
Uhm, browser has a window mode, just so you know.
So? All that means is the window isn’t using the full screen.
Yes, space for other stuff.
What i want to say is, that barely anyone uses their FHD+ display to have the browser in fullscreen. (Or the blind TO with bigger text size)
When you only have the browser open, you have it maximized. Also I think you mean screen size not resolution, as my phone and laptop are both “FHD” (1080p?), and my phone defo isn’t big enough to use the browser splitscreen.
That’s fine when when I’m doing other stuff. Most of the time I’m not
Ans since when has my a Personal annoyances have anything to do with most people
Well… developers develop for most people, except if you pay them to do your wishes.
It’s been studied quite extensively, and there’s a limit to the width on most pages for a reason. Your eyes have a harder time tracking a very wide width, and it’s easier to read in a column like that. Even newspapers do it, because it’s a well-researched topic.
