Ironically, TechCrunch, the publisher of this amusing rant, has an app:<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aol.mobile.techcrunch" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aol.mobile...</a><p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/techcrunch/id526058642?mt=8" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/techcrunch/id526058642?mt=8</a>
> <i>Redecentralize the web!</i><p>Redecentralize all internet services!<p>Shameless plug ahead, I believe in this idea so much I co-founded a company to help spread the idea and see it through.<p>Every person should have their own domain name and have the ability to run arbitrary services in the cloud. The price of computing power and bandwidth has come down so much that it's completely practical to do this now.<p>Would love feedback/thoughts: <a href="https://portal.cloud?invite=hn" rel="nofollow">https://portal.cloud?invite=hn</a> (invite code is just there so free domain discount is applied).<p>The most important thing is that no company (including mine) should ever have the ability to dominate the internet the way Google, Facebook, and Twitter do today.<p>We should be able to move from cloud provider to cloud provider with very little friction. If we truly control our own domain names, apps, and data this isn't even hard to do.<p>Google, Facebook, and Twitter could be just apps we run (webmail, web search, photo sharing, status updates). We shouldn't have to give up our privacy and be locked into a service that feeds us a hundred ads a day just to be able to check our email, search the web, share photos, or post 140 characters to the web.
See, I agree, but this is what this article looks like on my phone: <a href="https://imgur.com/VqchKIp" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/VqchKIp</a><p>Perhaps one should become a good example of an enjoyable mobile experience before one starts throwing stones.
This is why I'm super bullish on The Information (<a href="https://www.theinformation.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.theinformation.com</a>).
I always thought: "Well, those apps, I don't know. I don't use webapps on the pc anymore, because the browser does everyting. And some day, the mobile browser will be just as good and no one will need those apps."<p>That was before peope discovered mobile ads, access to phonebook/email etc pp.<p>Maybe it'll change.
Apps are only popular because we don't do mobile web good enough.
Most of the mobile web is either a banner asking download the app, or tons of adds with no room for content.