@manton I started working on an app based on Micro.blog APIs — started as a project to learn and explore. I do want to open it up to others now, in case if it helps them.
Is there any process? I did generate an app token, not using login API as of now.
I look at some people and heartily feel the society does not deserve them. I am confounded as to what covert energy drives such lot.
There is no way your regular earthly diet can prepare you for the routine assault marring your senses.
Dave Winer wrote about Google’s recent strike on non-https sites.
When big companies try to force you to change your web site, say no. The web does not belong to them. Defend the web. The answer to Google is no.
I am torn on this. On one hand, I absolutely hate that Google wants every website owner to go through the hassle of obtaining certificates and enabling https — even if it’s a plain simple text blog. But on the other hand, I realise that it’s too much to expect that regular users understand the technicalities of which sites have to be secure and which are ok if they are not.
Making all sites secure will shift the onus to the site owners rather than the readers. Those who know how to, will find a way to do so. Those who don’t are hopefully with platforms, like Wordpress, that are making it simple to enable https. It can’t be a loss for anyone, can it?
Ben Thompson of Stratechery has published a (another) great post on understanding AMP and the reasons behind its lure for publishers and success amongst users on web. It’s a must read to better understand how (and why) Google is aggressively pushing AMP across its product lines.
And of course, he also talks about the core argument against AMP - it’s an open, but still a proprietary standard from Google. And they are blatantly exploiting their monopoly in search and online advertising while promoting it.
The problem with Google’s actions should be obvious: the company is leveraging its monopoly in search to push the AMP format, and the company is leveraging its dominant position in browsers to punish sites with bad ads. That seems bad!
There is no better example than Google’s actions with AMP and Chrome ad-blocking: Google is quite explicitly dictating exactly how it is its suppliers will access its customers, and it is hard to argue that the experience is not significantly better because of it.
Yes, clearly Google wants to improve the end user experience by giving them a “better, leaner web” with AMP. Are they being monopolistic along the way? Definitely. Uncompetitive? Absolutely.
What happens when protecting consumer welfare requires acting uncompetitively?
Now that’s a loaded question — given that web is spoilt deeply with horrific and utter garbage ads spewed across, what other options remain than such hardball tactics?
I do not believe there is a convincing answer to that yet. I am sure the proponents of the open web, myself included, simply do not like Google’s utter disregard for standards in AMP. There are abundance of examples/opinions on problems with AMP.
What’s worrisome for me though is the fact that Google is markedly focused on elevating AMP’s experience on its own browser and in its own search. What if this experience of the web served by Google’s platforms turns so much better that eventually that becomes the only web user know of?
Yee-haw! Alto’s Odyssey is here. Farewell to some hours of productivity. And welcome some hours of relaxing glides. 😊
You code. Or you write. Rarely can you do both together. That context switching is not so seamless.
I guess it has to do something with that left brain-right brain thing 🤓
On my IndieWeb Journey, there are few things I haven’t sorted out yet.
To set up a media endpoint for micropub.
To (auto) send webmentions to the linked sites.
To get mentions from Twitter on syndicated microposts. Bridgy’s sending webmentions only to the ones with explicit URLs.
I had been displaying the webmentions on the posts for some time now. Idea was to validate if things were setup correctly. Once I had an idea on which mentions needed to be surfaced and how, I got to work today.
Finally, I feel I have something I am satisfied with.
I got a JSON feed setup for my site. When I began, I did not think it would be this simple. I love this format, I am comfortable playing around with it.
And here’s another reason why I serve this as a static site. I can quickly take such small custom projects & roll them.
Another day, another playground. It’s a feed fixing day — I need to decide how I want to serve my feed. In addition, prominently display the links to feeds on the site.
And get a jsonfeed setup too. I prefer the json format to xml any day. Why shouldn’t I serve my feed as one?