Reading up on web-history

Ask.com, the iconic question-based search engine, shut down on May 1, 2026, after 30 years of operation.

Wander is a decentralised tool consisting of two files that lets anyone host a console to discover and recommend small websites, inspired by Kagi Small Web.

A Hacker News discussion argues the small web is defined by a non-commercial mindset, not size, and remains sizable yet buried by algorithm-driven search engines.

A collection of over 700 two-color clip art images from HyperCard's 'Art Bits' sample stack, preserved and presented at original size.

Using RSS feeds reveals the hidden structure of online content, including SEO articles and paywall circumvention, contrasting with curated homepages.

Hacker News commenters celebrate the enduring legacy and technical depth of the late Sheldon Brown's bicycle repair website.

MSN is a Microsoft-owned web portal that provides news, email, and search services.

AI scrapers ignoring robots.txt and bypassing bulk downloads are overloading volunteer-run open data projects like MetaBrainz, forcing them to restrict access and harming legitimate users.

Text-based browsers like Lynx and w3m are increasingly incompatible with modern web technologies, leading users to advocate for alternatives like Gemini.

Markdown, created by John Gruber in 2004 as a simple plain-text formatting tool for blogging, has become the ubiquitous standard for annotating everything from AI prompts to code repositories.

An interactive guide explains browser mechanics from URL parsing to TCP connections and HTTP requests, aiming to build intuitive understanding.

RDLTR is a tool that helps users manage their reading backlog by allowing them to close tabs while keeping links for later.

The page could not load because the request was blocked by a security check.

Hacker News commenters recommend the POSSE model (publish on your own site, syndicate elsewhere) for content ownership, but acknowledge challenges with automation, platform policies, and community engagement.

The piece argues that the modern web has degraded into attention-farming platforms and proposes a return to personal, independent websites as a solution.

RDLTR is a lightweight reading-list web app (like Safari Reading List) with favicons, Vim bindings, and Passkey support.

The article catalogs long-obsolete HTML elements like `<xmp>`, `<spacer>`, `<keygen>`, and `<isindex>`, explaining their original purposes and why they were abandoned.

A retrospective on 30 years of web development, tracing the evolution from CGI scripts to modern frameworks, concluding the state of web development in 2025 is vastly improved.

SVG files can serve as self-contained, interactive data visualization tools that run client-side, assignable DOIs, versionable, and durable for scientific publishing.

An LLM retroactively grades decade-old Hacker News predictions, sparking debate on hindsight bias, surveillance, and the value of public web archives.

Ruby's value lies in prioritizing programmer joy and expressiveness over technical metrics, enabling business success despite critiques about its seriousness.

Bloomberg's server is blocking your request, treating it as automated traffic rather than a human visitor.

The piece argues that domains should serve as universal internet handles, and AT Protocol-based apps like Bluesky already enable this.

In November 2024, the quantity of AI-generated articles published online surpassed human-written articles, though the proportion has plateaued since May 2024.

A look at Forrester founder George Colony, who repeatedly predicted the Web's death over three decades but was consistently wrong as the Web evolved.