Thanks to @[email protected], I just had an epiphany about why centralization of the the world wide web happened:
Web browsers like #Chrome and #Firefox are stuck in an old paradigm of webpages -- which is an ancient way of viewing the web.
But that's not how the actual web works anymore. The real web is no longer about pages but about feeds, and the folks building web browsers -- Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla -- still don't realize this.
Even worse, feed functionality that used to exist natively in web browsers no longer exists. For example, it used to be that when you visited a webpage, web browsers would detect an #RSS feed -- giving you the option to subscribe. But starting with #Chrome, this feature was removed from modern web browsers.
However, that doesn't mean feeds have disappeared from the web. No, many have coalesced into walled gardens like #Twitter and #Instagram. And they're downright hostile towards access if you do not have an account on their services.
But that doesn't mean feeds have disappeared. Quite the opposite: they're more prevalent than ever with forums, podcasts, video, and more. They're still here, just harder to see simply because web browsers are stuck on that webpage paradigm.
So @[email protected] is essentially a web browser, not with a webpage paradigm, but a webfeed paradigm where -- instead of inputting URLs into an address bar -- it grabs feeds across from RSS, #podcast, and #socialweb feeds.
And frankly, this approach is brilliant. I use #Surf every day, and it's literally the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning.
With Surf, we've moved away from mere Fediverse clients. Now we have a genuine web browser for feeds!
@[email protected] I run my own server for a simple reason: it means owning my social media presence.
I own my content, my audience, and who I federate with.