FrogFind, A Better Way to Browse the Web
Last week I posted an article here talking about 68k.news, arguably the best way to read the news on the modern web. But what if I told you that we can go beyond the news and have a better way to browse the modern web in the same style as that of 68k.news? Well, you can with a special search engine called FrogFind.
Just like 68k.news, FrogFind was written and designed by the vintage computing YouTuber Action Retro as a way to return web functionality to 90’s era computers.
How Does it Work?
To my understanding, it uses DuckDuckGo’s search and then strips everything down using Mozilla’s open source reader view feature found in Firefox. It then does some other magic to strip out whatever is left to give us some beautifully basic HTML for the websites you want read. Let’s see what a search for the “best” Linux music player turns up.
Yep, it’s a page of search results. Just a link to the result, the URL of the page, and a little description of what’s there. Now let’s click through to one and see what we find.
And just like 68k.news, FrogFind serves up a fully stripped down version of the webpage. Now in my article on 68k.news I mentioned that it removes all of the javascript, tracking cookies, photos and videos, but I was mistaken on the photos. If you look at the top of the screenshot above, under the headline you see a line that says “View page images” with a number. Well those numbers link through to the actual image file; a useful feature if you’re reading a tutorial on how to do something with visuals or diagrams. Not all images show up, but basic Jpegs, Gifs, PNGs, and Bitmaps work just fine. Basically, anything that is compliant with the HTML 2.0 standards.
The Negatives
Unfortunately, FrogFind isn’t perfect. Many sites these days require javascript and HTML5 to function properly. Sites like YouTube, GitHub, CNN, and even good ol’ Substack break in FrogFind, so for those you still need to access their normal sites, but for the majority of what you do on the web it should work just fine.
Final Thoughts
While FrogFind isn’t perfect, it does make browsing the modern web much more accessible for enthusiasts who like using vintage PCs and for people who can’t afford more powerful machines. It also provides a distraction free reading experience that, I feel, is all around more pleasant. Give it a try and let me know what you think! And be sure to give Action Retro a sub to keep up with his excellent content.