A memex in every web browser
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A memex in every web browser
November 4th, 2023
When Mathew Modine’s character first shows up in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, I figured the rest of the cinema audience wouldn’t have appreciated me shouting out “VANNEVAR BUSH IN THE HOUSE!” so I screamed it on the inside.
The Manhattan Project was not his only claim to fame or infamy. When it comes to the world we now live in, Bush’s idea of the memex has been almost equally influential. His article As We May Think became a touchstone for Douglas Engelbart and later Tim Berners-Lee.
But as Matt Thompson points out:
…the device he describes does not resemble the internet or anything I’ve ever found on it.
Then he says:
What Bush was describing sounds to me like what you might get if you turned a browser history — the most neglected piece of the software — into a robust and fully featured machine of its own. It would help you map the path you charted through a web of knowledge, refine those maps, order them, and share them
Yes! This!! I 100% agree with the description of browser history as “the most neglected piece of the software.” While I wouldn’t go as far as Chris when he says web browsers kind of suck, I’m kind of amazed that there hasn’t been more innovation and competition in this space.
If anything we’ve outsourced the management of our browsing history to services like Delicious and Pinboard, or to tools like Obsidian and Roam Research. Heck, the links section of my website is my attempt to manage and annotate my own associative trails.
Imagine if that were baked right into a web browser. Then imagine how beautiful such a rich source of data might look.
I don’t think anything like this exists. So Bush’s essay still transfixes me.
6:32pm
Tagged with memex vannevarbush hypertext computing history technology browsers associative trails tools web browsing
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Responses
bkardell
@adactio I like the idea of this being in some kind of portable data format too tho so that we could not lose this if we switch browsers or could cloud share it between our browsers, etc. I like what the do with pocket (now moz owned), letting you do some interestingly much better things.
# Posted by bkardell on Saturday, November 4th, 2023 at 7:54pm
brandonleedy
@adactio Ironically, it feels like there’s one place that sort of has this data of our browsing habits: advertisers. I think this silent abuse of our browsing data has subtly made keeping/capturing our own graph seem “bad” or “dangerous.” Conversely, I think having a memex of our browsing might make us realize this fingerprint of our activity is worth protecting.
# Posted by brandonleedy on Sunday, November 5th, 2023 at 2:19pm
mitten
@adactio I just came across this utility app recently: https://www.stclairsoft.com/HistoryHound/index.html It’s not *exactly* what you’re aiming at (it’s not within a browser, for one) but it’s an interesting step in that general direction.
# Posted by mitten on Sunday, November 5th, 2023 at 5:29pm
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