September 1, 2010
Initial version of Mini-WWW's database may be compared to a new art exhibition. The collection may be small, but it must be original to achieve success.
First, the Mini-WWW sets a kind of WALL between its simple uncluttered exhibits and the rest of the Web. And that is Total Files' SIZE! It must not exceed a certain maximum level.
Currently it's 100K.
Why 100K? The digit is not curved in a stone. But there must be some clear line for the beginning. I remember popular 10K web contests many years ago. So, the 100K looks a good starting point for today.
Preventing access to big pages is like using soft for blocking adult content :).
The next important step should be introduction of a special formula to rank selected pages more smoothly.
Mini-WWW looks for best webpages, rather than best websites. That's the kind of mistake the Google makes: It ranks pages from reputable sites higher, no matter what. Very often it's simply not fair. Within any site, pages' content is always different.
Resulted List of carefully selected URLs for Small Uncluttered Webpages is a very precious property. It forms the most valuable asset of the Mini-WWW. The database may be licensed or simply outsourced to other search engines.
A Gallery Of Top Minimal Webpages is a good idea by itself. But there are a lot of popular specialized galleries out of there. I would mention just my favorite one, - The Museum of Modern BETAs.
Advantage of the Mini-WWW is it's the first, and currently the only, gallery that adds to it a service for SEARCHING INSIDE listed items.
So, the next stage is to invent a new search engine.
What's wrong with existing ones?
There is some important ingredient that is missed in formulas of modern search engines.
You will not find it in Google, nor in any leader on the search market.
That's a degree of COMPLEXITY. The easiness to consume. Easiness to read. Literally. It's not a big fun when you are distracted from main content by the need to see all those ads and extra details of website's graphical user interface.
With Google, or whatever search engine on the market, you never know what kind of content you are going to be exposed to! Although it might be not very important for Google, - its internal representation of the Web has always been in a simple stripped-down form anyway, - it may critically affect a significant part of Internet users.
As the Mini-WWW is definetely not in a position to force websites getting rid of their lovely ads compeltely, why not simply direct people only to the webpages where usage of ads is minimal. Trying to minimize the evil is better than letting it going unlimited.
The Museum Of Minimal Webpages
I like the name. Despite museums are for static exhibits, and the web is constantly updating.
I adore the museums' spirit of education and inspiration. Resources listed by Mini-WWW are hopefully worth to admire. And study.
A Gallery Without Clutter. Will the first ever showroom of pages without unnecessary layer of complexity be popular?
Only the future will tell.