Meet Wander, a StumbleUpon-inspired tool for discovering the ‘small web’

As hunt becomes progressively dominated by AI summaries and commercialized content, radical are experimenting and coming up with ways to marque the web consciousness much quality similar it utilized to, gathering everything from “small web” hunt engines to decentralized societal networks.

One of the newer efforts successful that absorption is Wander Console, an open-source, self-hosted web console that gives website visitors a mode to research different absorbing sites and webpages recommended by a assemblage of indie website owners.

Susam Pal, the London-based developer of the project, says helium was inspired to physique the small, decentralized instrumentality aft helium saw Kagi’s “small web” search tool that limits searches to definite types of content, similar blogs, webcomics and YouTube channels.

But that inactive wouldn’t aboveground the benignant of tiny websites that are maintained by indie developers similar Pal himself, nor web projects, mini apps, oregon games. That led Pal to make Wander, which puts website recommendations backmost into the hands of users.

“Not everybody is alert of this beauteous information of the internet, which is quirky, wherever we person each kinds of unusual websites, wherever radical are expressing their personality, and truthful on,” helium said.

Wander has its roots successful older ideas, similar the webrings that erstwhile connected autarkic websites and blogs, oregon website find tools similar StumbleUpon, which offered serendipitous recommendations arsenic you clicked its “Stumble!” fastener to observe caller websites. It besides has elements of blogrolls, arsenic tract owners tin urge different websites.

To usage Wander, you simply upload 2 files to your website: an index.html record that points to the Wander console, and a wander.js (a plain JavaScript file) that you usage to nexus to different Wander consoles you’re recommending. There’s nary server-side codification oregon database, and the console tin adjacent beryllium hosted connected GitHub Pages oregon Codeberg Pages, Pal said.

Once uploaded, you tin adhd a “Wander” nexus to your website that allows visitors to leap into the find experience. (For example, here’s Pal’s Wander console demo.)

Image Credits:Susam Pal

The console has a “Wander” fastener astatine the apical of the leafage that you tin click to load a random website. You tin besides click the “Console” fastener to spot accusation astir that person’s Wander setup, including a database of different people’s Wander consoles that they recommend. Wander calls these recommended consoles “Neighbors.”

Some of these Wander consoles are rather clever and funny. One feline called Josh has made a Wander console that recommends each the different websites made by radical named Josh. Someone other has customized their console to crook the cursor into a small creature; different takes you done assorted pages connected Neocities, a web hosting level focused connected bringing backmost the creativity of the web, similar what utilized to beryllium recovered connected Geocities (hence the name). Many others person changed the color scheme of their console to lucifer their ain tract oregon springiness it a nostalgic look.

Image Credits:screenshot of Yet Another Tech Gemlog (opens successful a caller window)

Pal said it’s casual to customize the console utilizing CSS oregon JavaScript without changing the archetypal Wander Console. (If you don’t cognize how, you tin astir apt get AI to assistance you with that part.) This way, erstwhile Wander ships a caller release, that information of the record tin beryllium updated with a elemental copy-and-paste.

Pal archetypal introduced the task to the Hacker News community this spring, and much precocious shared it connected Reddit and elsewhere, receiving tons of affirmative feedback and support. Since those aboriginal introductions, Wander has been adopted by over 60 people who are present utilizing it to urge a full of implicit 1,500 websites.

“I don’t deliberation everybody needs to cognize astir the tiny web — immoderate radical usage the web arsenic a utility, and I deliberation it’s wholly good for them. But radical who are creative, they mightiness privation to cognize astir the tiny web,” Pal explained.

He said galore net users look to miss StumbleUpon and deliberation of it with a consciousness of nostalgia. “It’s the constituent of astonishment — you ne'er cognize what you volition find erstwhile you click the button,” helium added.