# State of the Web Published articles for State of the Web. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Adobe's Shift from a Content-Rich Website to a Product-Focused Site DevFeed: [Adobe's Shift from a Content-Rich Website to a Product-Focused Site]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman Published: 2026-09-14T16:21:36Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman]() Topics: [Website](), [Publishing]() Tags: [adobe](), [articles](), [content](), [content-first](), [content-strategy](), [damned-fine-journalism](), [design](), [how-to](), [interviews](), [money](), [opinion](), [products](), [publishing](), [state-of-the-web](), [web-design](), [web-design-history](), [websites](), [zeldman]() ### AI overview The article reflects on Adobe's website in 2000 as a content-rich publication featuring how-to articles, opinions, artist interviews, and product information. It contrasts that model with Adobe's later shift toward a conventional product-focused site and argues that brands did not broadly replace the publishing opportunities lost as journalism declined. ### Source excerpt 2000 was the peak year for Adobe's website. It was a content site filled with creative how-to articles, opinion pieces, and artist interviews where you could also, if you wished, buy or get info on Adobe products. Now this is how you create a product site for a suite of creative products, I told myself [...] The post Remembrance of Websites Past appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents. ## Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell DevFeed: [Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman Published: 2026-08-18T17:24:50Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman]() Topics: [Responsive Design](), [web design](), [Front end](), [web-standards]() Tags: [authoring](), [best-practices](), [css](), [design](), [essentials](), [responsive](), [responsive-design](), [responsive-web-design](), [rwd](), [standards](), [state-of-the-web](), [the-essentials](), [the-profession](), [type](), [typography](), [usability](), [user-experience](), [ux](), [w3c](), [web-design](), [web-design-history](), [web-standards](), [webdesign](), [webtype]() ### AI overview This article explains intrinsic or fluid responsive design: define type scales for small and large screens, then let the browser interpolate between them according to viewport width. It connects the approach to earlier ideas about designing for the web's natural ebb and flow and to the development of Responsive Web Design through improved web standards and browser support. ### Source excerpt In 2020, the gifted makers of websites at Clearleft shared methods to achieve fluid responsive design. "Utopian" web design was (and still is) their half-kidding name for this approach, which Apple's Jen Simmons, working indendently, called "intrinsic design." Instead of chasing an ever-changing number of fixed breakpoints, utopian or intrinsic design follows the web's intrinsic [...] The post Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents. ## Memories Can't Wait--or, How I Learned to Keep Worrying About the Web DevFeed: [Memories Can't Wait--or, How I Learned to Keep Worrying About the Web]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman Published: 2026-07-06T15:07:11Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman]() Topics: [Web](), [Cloud](), [digital]() Tags: [architecture](), [archiving](), [best-practices](), [cloud](), [community](), [corporatism](), [curation](), [decentralized](), [design](), [digital-curation](), [digital-preservation](), [essentials](), [extractive-capitalism](), [free-advice](), [future-friendly](), [ideas](), [indieweb](), [industry](), [local](), [lockss](), [networks](), [off-my-lawn](), [open-source](), [open-web](), [own-your-content](), [platforms](), [state-of-the-web](), [storage](), [surviving](), [the-essentials](), [web]() ### AI overview An opinion essay argues that digital memories are vulnerable because online services, platforms, domains, and content systems can disappear or change ownership. It recommends owning domains and keeping multiple local copies rather than relying solely on cloud services. ### Source excerpt The web is still the best hope we have for a durable, shared memory. But it requires us to be gardeners, not merely tenants. The post Memories Can't Wait--or, How I Learned to Keep Worrying About the Web appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents. ## The Human Story of the Open Web DevFeed: [The Human Story of the Open Web]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman Published: 2026-07-02T11:43:10Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman]() Topics: [Web](), [Open Source](), [Artificial Intelligence]() Tags: [ai](), [closed-networks](), [enshittification](), [indieweb](), [open-source](), [open-web](), [own-your-content](), [owning-versus-renting](), [state-of-the-web]() ### AI overview Jeffrey Zeldman reflects on the loss of content and communities on proprietary online platforms and argues that owning content on the open web and using open-source alternatives can help preserve digital self-determination. The article also discusses the documentary "Code for the People," its themes, and a panel about the future of the web in the age of AI and enshittification. ### Source excerpt STOP ME if you've heard this one: The members of an extended family spend years curating a shared online photo album. Then the website they posted on vanishes, flushing their collective memories away forever. The post The Human Story of the Open Web appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents. ## Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna DevFeed: [Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: by Mark Bernstein Published: 2025-10-15T15:35:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [A List Apart: The Full Feed]() Topics: [Web](), [Computer science](), [Math and Logic]() Tags: [community](), [community-industry-state-of-the-web-web-strategy](), [design](), [history](), [industry](), [math](), [research](), [state-of-the-web](), [web](), [web-strategy]() ### AI overview The article examines how amiable design can improve web environments and uses the Vienna Circle and the origins of computer science in Vienna as a historical case study. It connects the quality of interaction in research communities with the design of welcoming online spaces. ### Source excerpt Today's web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising "One Weird Trick!" to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders. These tensions are often at odds with a site's goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we don't want those customers to wrangle with each other. If we offer news about the latest research, we want readers to feel at ease; if we promote upcoming marches, we want our core supporters to feel comfortable and we want curious newcomers to feel welcome. In a study for a conference on the History of the Web, I looked to the origins of Computer Science in Vienna (1928-1934) for a case study of the importance of amiability in a research community and the disastrous consequences of its loss. That story has interesting implications for web environments that promote amiable interaction among disparate, difficult (and sometimes disagreeable) people. The Vienna Circle Though people had been thinking about calculating engines and thinking machines from antiquity, Computing really got going in Depression-era Vienna. The people who worked out the theory had no interest in building machines; they wanted to puzzle out the limits of reason in the absence of divine authority. If we could not rely on God or Aristotle to tell us how to think, could we instead build arguments that were self-contained and demonstrably correct? Can we be sure that mathematics is consistent? Are there things that are true but that cannot be expressed in language? The core ideas were worked out in the weekly meetings (Thursdays at 6) of a group remembered as the Vienna Circle. They got together in the office of Professor Moritz Schlick at the University of Vienna to discuss problems in philosophy, math, and language. The i ## If you don't know about HTTP Archive's Web Almanac yet, you should! DevFeed: [If you don't know about HTTP Archive's Web Almanac yet, you should!]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Brian Clark Published: 2024-11-01T05:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Blog RSS Feed | Snyk]() Topics: [State of the Web](), [BigQuery](), [Security](), [HTTP](), [Open Source](), [Web Development]() Tags: [bigquery](), [blog](), [community](), [developer](), [devrel](), [http](), [interest](), [javascript](), [open-source](), [open-source-security](), [security](), [snyk-open-source](), [state-of-the-web](), [web]() ### AI overview This article introduces the Web Almanac, a community-driven report that analyzes how the web is built and used through data from millions of websites. It describes the report's chapters, contributors, HTTP Archive web-crawl data, public BigQuery database, and the forthcoming 2024 edition. ### Source excerpt Learn about the HTTP Archive's Web Almanac, a valuable, community-driven resource for today's security teams. ## The Wax and the Wane of the Web DevFeed: [The Wax and the Wane of the Web]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: by Ste Grainer Published: 2024-02-29T14:45:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [A List Apart: The Full Feed]() Topics: [Web Development]() Tags: [browsers](), [css](), [design](), [developers](), [hacks](), [state-of-the-web](), [state-of-the-web-web-strategy](), [web](), [web-standards](), [web-strategy]() ### AI overview A reflective article on the web's recurring shifts in design and development practices. It contrasts early table-based layouts, font tags, spacer GIFs, and CGI scripts with the rise of web standards and broader CSS adoption. ### Source excerpt I offer a single bit of advice to friends and family when they become new parents: When you start to think that you've got everything figured out, everything will change. Just as you start to get the hang of feedings, diapers, and regular naps, it's time for solid food, potty training, and overnight sleeping. When you figure those out, it's time for preschool and rare naps. The cycle goes on and on. The same applies for those of us working in design and development these days. Having worked on the web for almost three decades at this point, I've seen the regular wax and wane of ideas, techniques, and technologies. Each time that we as developers and designers get into a regular rhythm, some new idea or technology comes along to shake things up and remake our world. How we got here I built my first website in the mid-'90s. Design and development on the web back then was a free-for-all, with few established norms. For any layout aside from a single column, we used table elements, often with empty cells containing a single pixel spacer GIF to add empty space. We styled text with numerous font tags, nesting the tags every time we wanted to vary the font style. And we had only three or four typefaces to choose from: Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. When Verdana and Georgia came out in 1996, we rejoiced because our options had nearly doubled. The only safe colors to choose from were the 216 "web safe" colors known to work across platforms. The few interactive elements (like contact forms, guest books, and counters) were mostly powered by CGI scripts (predominantly written in Perl at the time). Achieving any kind of unique look involved a pile of hacks all the way down. Interaction was often limited to specific pages in a site. The birth of web standards At the turn of the century, a new cycle started. Crufty code littered with table layouts and font tags waned, and a push for web standards waxed. Newer technologies like CSS got more widespread adoption by browsers make