10 votes

Microbrowsers are everywhere

9 comments

  1. [7]
    ubergeek
    Link
    And this is part of what is killing the internet. Anyone else miss the good ole days when good content was king and queen for traffic, rather than glitzy images and marketing speak? I want all SEO...

    And this is part of what is killing the internet. Anyone else miss the good ole days when good content was king and queen for traffic, rather than glitzy images and marketing speak?

    I want all SEO folk to just... Go away.

    13 votes
    1. vakieh
      Link Parent
      Those good ole days never existed. Zombocom is the testament to what it used to be like.

      Those good ole days never existed. Zombocom is the testament to what it used to be like.

      14 votes
    2. [4]
      Wes
      Link Parent
      I don't think Slack previews are killing the internet. Or people optimizing for them. Relevant content is and always has been the chief metric to optimize for. It doesn't matter how nice your...

      I don't think Slack previews are killing the internet. Or people optimizing for them. Relevant content is and always has been the chief metric to optimize for. It doesn't matter how nice your Slack previews look if there's no reason to link to your page.

      "Content is king" still fills the (white hat) SEO blogs and Google webmaster guidelines, so it's not as if that's ever gone away. There's just a lot more to worry about now. The easily-abused metatags have been replaced with structured data and OpenGraph. The relatively-simplistic PageRank algorithm has had about a thousand other ranking factors baked in.

      Things are more complicated now, but not necessarily worse. A structured web is easier to crawl and understand for any computer, not just GoogleBot. And many of those extra ranking factors add incentive to do right by the user. They encourage mobile-friendly and accessible websites. They encourage HTTPS security and improving page speed. Having too many ads is even a negative ranking factor (yes, even Google ads). These are things that good SEOs will push to improve.

      So I understand why there's a negative stigma associated with the industry, as there are so many bad actors. But for those following the guidelines, SEO is largely just fixing things and making sure you're not shooting yourself in the foot. People building entire websites as giant images or Flash embeds wasn't unheard of.

      So all that said, I don't see anything wrong with picking a better Slack embed photo rather than letting the algorithm do it. It's one more thing to worry about, but it isn't user-hostile in any way.

      12 votes
      1. [3]
        mxuribe
        Link Parent
        There certainly is the ever-constant push and pull fight between legitimate content discovery and advertising/marketing. While i am glad for the availability and utility of standards that help...

        There certainly is the ever-constant push and pull fight between legitimate content discovery and advertising/marketing. While i am glad for the availability and utility of standards that help with discovery - e.g. schema.org, open graph protocol, etc. - I'm disheartened that abuse is always a thing. That being said, I guess i can live with the abuse potential since the benefits of discovery are so very essential, that is, assuming everyone participating on the greater internet is educated about possibility and the real-life ramifications of abuse.

        3 votes
        1. [2]
          ubergeek
          Link Parent
          Except, the vast majority wont be educated, and will just be abused.

          Except, the vast majority wont be educated, and will just be abused.

          3 votes
          1. mxuribe
            Link Parent
            Sadly, i believe you're likely correct. But, then again, it is the duty of every technologist - myself included - to help educate our fellow human beings.

            Sadly, i believe you're likely correct. But, then again, it is the duty of every technologist - myself included - to help educate our fellow human beings.

            1 vote
    3. xstresedg
      Link Parent
      As the Sleep Executive Officer of my Bed, I will not go away. I will simply go to sleep.

      As the Sleep Executive Officer of my Bed, I will not go away. I will simply go to sleep.

      3 votes
  2. jtvjan
    Link
    What is a "progressive video experience"? Isn't streaming the only common way to deliver video on the web today?

    Use <meta property="og:video* with progressive (not streaming) video experiences.

    What is a "progressive video experience"? Isn't streaming the only common way to deliver video on the web today?

    4 votes
  3. skybrian
    Link
    From the article:

    From the article:

    These link previews are so commonplace that we hardly pay any attention to how our site design might be impacting the generated preview. Yet, these previews can be the most influential part for attracting new audiences and increasing engagement - possibly more than SEO. Even more alarming is that most web analytics are blind to this traffic and can’t show you how these Microbrowsers are interacting with your site.

    3 votes