🏠 The Death Of The Free Web?

Google is on the attack

Stephen Flanders
August 04, 2023

Gm. I knew I was getting old when I stopped looking forward to new music being released. That changed last week with the drop of Travis Scott’s new album Utopia. It’s not at the Astroworld level, but it’s so much better than Drake’s latest album. Lord knows I needed this.

— Stephen Flanders

🏠 TECH

The Web Environment Integrity Scandal

If you’re chronically online like me, you might have noticed some noise about “Web Environment Integrity” (WEI)

Written by a team of 4 Googlers, WEI would provide websites with an API telling them whether the browser and the platform it is running on that is currently in use is trusted by an authoritative third party (called an attester).

Basically, it would allow websites to kick you off if they don’t find you trustworthy.

In theory, WEI would create a more secure internet by verifying that everybody is actually made of flesh and bones. And that would undoubtedly be great. Who wouldn’t want an internet with less spam, less social-media manipulation, and less phishing?

But, in reality, “secure internet” could very well translate to “un-free internet”.

As WEI’s many critics point out, WEI likely comes with a host of side effects:

It could effectively make ad-blocking impossible.
It would obstruct many existing uses of the Web including assistive technologies, automatic testing, archiving, and search engine spiders.
It would likely lead to a Web dominated by the few tech giants that control the attesters. In other words, you’re going to play by Google, Microsoft, and Apple’s rules, or you’re not going to surf the Web.

In summary, WEI is a big step down the enshittification curve and might turn our beloved internet into one big centralized walled garden.

Not ideal.

Does web3 fix this?

Why should I care? Do you care about being able to do what you want when you want on the internet? Then you should care about WEI.

🏠 TECH

More Big Tech Earnings

Big Tech earnings season continued this week with Apple and Amazon both reporting results.

Apple

The lone member of the $3T club didn’t have a great quarter:

Revenue of $81.8B, beating expectations of $81.69B but down 1% from last year and the third consecutive quarter of declining revenue.
iPhone revenue of $39.67B, lower than expectations of $39.91B and down 2% from last year.
Mac revenue of $6.84B, beating expectations of $6.62B but down 7% from last year.
iPad revenue of $5.79B, lower than expectations of $6.41B and down 20% from last year.
Services revenue of $21.21B, beating expectations of $20.76B and up 8% from last year.

Maybe we’re witnessing the birth of a new category of company: Apple-As-A-Service (AAAS).

Amazon

Amazon, on the other hand, had a quarter to remember:

Revenue of $134.4B, beating expectations of $131.5B.
Amazon Web Services revenue of $22.1B, beating expectations of $21.8B.
Advertising revenue of $10.7B, beating expectations of $10.4B.

It’s Amazon’s biggest earnings beat since Q4 2020, and the stock market rewarded them with a 10% gain in after-hours trading.

What a day for the fighting Bezos’s.

The Bottom Line: Big tech is slowly making a comeback, but the same can’t be said for Apple’s hardware products.

🏃‍♀️ QUICKIES

What else is going on?

OpenAI has applied to trademark GPT-5.
The cure for cancer might come in a pill.
Operation turn Twitter X into a financial hub is underway.
The only thing stopping the DOJ from charging Binance with fraud is the possibility of a bank run.

Stat: 68 miles: Elon’s Boring Company has received approval to dig a 68-mile tunnel network under Las Vegas. Do you think they’ll build a casino down there?

Rabbit hole: Cultivating A State Of Mind Where New Ideas Are Born (Less Wrong)