---
date: '2024-02-03'
title: 'Browsing the mobile web sucks'
description: "The mobile web isn't all bad, but so much of the experience is."
tags: ['development', 'javascript', 'tech', 'privacy']
---
The mobile web isn't all bad, but so much of the experience is. I've *absolutely loved* the recent trend back towards personal websites and blogs but, outside of all of those little homes and passion projects, it's rough.<!-- excerpt -->

A search engine that uses AI to browse for you is not the right answer. It isn't. How many useful results does Google even show you on first load? I've got an iPhone 15 Pro Max (a boat of a phone, truly) and I can see all of, well, one (and it isn't always useful).

Using an [adblocker](https://github.com/cdransf/awesome-adblock) isn't about improving your experience anymore, it's a necessary step towards making things usable. I don't want to fight to close a modal that opened with your sit whose contents I'll be too annoyed to read. I don't want half of my viewport devoted to the ads you're running[^1].

Privacy is extremely important, but cookie banners are an internet-wide blight[^2].

Again, monetization is *hard*, but if your site immediately prompts to me to log in to read something, I'll try the reader view and, failing that working, close the tab.

I know you have an app. I don't want to install it. Don't prompt me — it's your website in a wrapper with push notifications and more telemetry. Stop.

I shouldn't have to load React and all of its dependencies so that I can tap the link to your take out menu that loads as a PDF. It's not the restaurant's fault, that's not their core competency, but whoever created the service they're using for their site can do better.

If you're building a website it should be as fast as possible, it should be tested on old devices and slow network connections. I get that there are often business rules and needs, but sites are often so bad that users check out before they can check out and I don't blame them.

[^1]: I understand monetization is important, but the experience for users is often **terrible**.
[^2]: If [Super Agent](https://super-agent.com/) misses something, I'm slamming that reject all button.
