Hello fediverse!
This morning we’re opening a beta for Surf, a new kind of browser for a new kind of web — the open social web.
Built from the ground up on ActivityPub, AT Proto and RSS, you can create and surf amazing custom feeds that organize people, videos, articles, images and podcasts around the things you care about.
Surf is a liberating new approach to how we use social media and I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Learn more and sign up for the beta at https://surf.social
@mike Looking forward to trying this out! Is this strictly an app, or will it also be available on the web?
@jenkins Awesome, thanks for the heads up!
@Patrickoldhiker @mike @mntyfrsh My ageing eyes don't like it either - but I just generally don't like to do anything on my phone except calling & texting, thank you very much.
@mike Great to hear! Thank you!
What have they done in the way of privacy, ie, data gathering and web tracking?
@mike problem with the name is: it's already in use for the suckless browser.
@mike This is absolutely awesome!
I would absolutely love to do some beta testing of this, as that is what I did for 9+ years while working for Nova Launcher.
@mike Fantastic!
we need reader, video and podcast apps that integrate our decentralized social graph. show us what's most popular and let us quickly boost the item once we've read, watched or listened to it. this sounds great.
then someday, pay creators directly (open protocol/API for fiat transfer?) for time spent.
there's already a web browser named surf
@mike nice work, exciting stuff! Looking forward to taking this for a run!
@jupiter_rowland Our goal is to seamlessly support any ActivityPub feed. For example Pixelfed and Friendica work great and Lemmy is pretty good too. We’ll gradually work through the variations and collaborate with folks to get thins working as seamlessly as possible.
@jupiter_rowland @mike I see lemmy in there. And pixelfed too. Should work with anything on AP.
@mike is it a smartphone app?
@mike There a git repo?
@mike My only question is will it remember where I am in the timeline or will it always infuriatingly scroll to the top? All the apps I’ve seen so far (except Ivory) do this and it’s maddening!
@selgart The beta currently does not do this but it is definitely in the plan. Do you like the Ivory handles this? What’s your ideal approach?
@mike Ivory’s method is ideal. Open the app, you’re still at the same post you saw the last time. If you happen to want to go to the top it’s only one tap at the top of the screen to get there. But even better, if going to the top was an accidental touch you can just tap the top again and it takes you back to where you were. It’s totally on the side of the user. Bluesky’s behavior, not to pick on them in particular as almost all apps do this to be fair, always taking you to “now” is really pretty user-hostile in an otherwise pretty good app.
@selgart thanks for sharing this. I like this approach and will make sure we factor in.
@mike signed up for the beta! Can’t wait to try it
@mike There is already a browser with the name surf ^^
@mike love seeing people do interesting things with the open web
@mike
The website doesn't really tell us what this is, specifically.
Also there is no privacy policy.
@mike I'm so hyped! Looking forward to testing it in @medialab_invisible
@mike proprietary?
@mike Lots of good tidings regarding fediverse projects lately.
Congratulations and look forward to checking it out!
@dandylover1 tablet and desktop support will be coming. Most importantly we'll have specialized layouts for larger screens. The photos and videos will look amazing.
@dandylover1 I understand. Yes we’ll have a desktop computer version. And I’ll be sure we support Alt text and other accessibility features as much as possible.
Are there any specific thoughts for me on this? I’d love to know what would be most useful for you.
@mike I like the idea but isn't that name already in use by one of the minimal Linux browsers?
@mike As a Flipboard user since 2010 I have two things:
1) Congratulations, can't wait to see it!
2) Can't wait to see it! LET ME IN
@noah Hi Noah! Hopefully tomorrow!
@mike congrats! We look forward to beta testing it!
Hi, you contacted us about the login process for surf. You mentioned your “personal domain”.
We generally use the mastodon api. Can you share the domain that is not working?
What I can tell you is that we need to create an “app” on that domain for the surf login to work.
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/apps/
You should be able to login to surf with any fediverse domain that supports the mastodon client api.
@jd I see that we are able to add an application to the host social.mrdonaldson.net I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work. You should be able to paste in that host (it actually looks like it has already happened) and connect.