Is Today's Web Still 'the Web'?

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister raises questions regarding the transforming nature of the Web now that Tim Berners-Lee's early vision has been supplanted by today's much more complex model. AJAX, Google Web Toolkit, Flash and Silverlight all have McAllister asking, 'Is [the Web] still the Web if you can't navigate directly to specific content? Is it still the Web if the content can't be indexed and searched? Is it still the Web if you can only view the application on certain clients or devices? Is it still the Web if you can't view source?' Such questions bely a much bigger question for Web developers, McAllister writes. If today's RIAs no longer resemble the 'Web,' then should we be shoehorning these apps into the Web's infrastructure, or is the problem that the client platforms simply aren't evolving fast enough to meet our needs?" If the point of 'The Web' is to allow direct links between any 2 points, is today's web something entirely different?

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Re:google

[owlnation]

I don't see how any web developer (with a conscience) could commit themselves to silverlight when it means locking out so many users.

Fixed that for you. Sadly there are those who will use Silverlight regardless of the hassle it causes users. MLB.com is one example. In their retarded drive to drm their (free) video content on their site, they use Silverlight. Despite being a paying MLB.TV subscriber, I cannot get any of their video to work on Firefox whatsoever on my windows box, I have to use IE -- it is the ONLY site I use IE for. And nothing at all will play it on my G4 iMac. Not Safari, not Firefox -- nothing.

If you are developer that works for a company that doesn't give flying fuck, about its customers choices then you'll cheerfully use Silverlight. And it's these developers that are the real enemy, they are the ones "only obeying orders". They need to be condemned more. They can stop this -- but they are cowards, and just as unethical as the suits they work for.

Re:Fluff or content?

[erockett]

I'm currently studying New Media Design, which is proving to be largely about putting as much fluff into pages as possible. The more I look at Flash websites, the more I'm amazed at how little content there often is, and how frustrating they can be compared to a plain HTML page. Okay, the graphics are awesome, but I don't really like the trade-off with usability on many sites.

I took Web Design and Implementation recently, and I was appalled at the reactions of my teammates on our term project. Everyone was so distressed that the teacher wasn't letting us use Flash! Maybe because this was a class about implementing things like CSS and JavaScript?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right major, because I like good ol HTML pages better.

Re:I always thought...

[plasmacutter]

That pile of needless bullshit navigation is precisely what hypertext was supposed to allow you to avoid.

and, sadly, what most hosts and advertising revenue driven sites don't want you to be able to avoid.

The more ads they can shove in your way and get you to accidentally click.. the more malware they can infect your computer with.. the more money they make.