Why don't we stream websites like movies?

Question

Streaming data would allow for "browser-based applications" (e.g. single request/refresh-less web applications).Why is the standard approach still transactional?

edent · Accepted Answer

Well, we can - that's how VNC and other protocols work. But it has a few disadvantages.
The first is latency. When you scroll or click, you want the response to happen quickly. If you're streaming the response you have to wait for at least one round trip before anything happens.
Secondly is bandwidth. For all the snark about bloated images and JS libraries, the web is extremely bandwidth light. A 1080p video is less so.
Thirdly, it was tried before. Opera Mini used to render pages before sending them out. It sort of worked for low powered devices but had a lot of quirks which I think gave the idea a bad name.
Finally, it would be impossible to block ads on a streamed website. See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/07/the-future-of-the-web-is-vn...

eimrine · Answer

Seems like you have described apps for snoop-phones. Those are a refresh-less, not device-agnostic browser apps with no tabs, no ability to change a font-size and limited ability to block ads.

warrenm · Answer

Why do you want to "stream" a website?An average website is a couple megs (maybe?)What advantage would "streaming" that have over just loading it?How would you account for AJAXy sites/services?

Why don't we stream websites like movies?

Streaming data would allow for "browser-based applications" (e.g. single request/refresh-less web applications).
Why is the standard approach still transactional?

Seems like you have described apps for snoop-phones. Those are a refresh-less, not device-agnostic browser apps with no tabs, no ability to change a font-size and limited ability to block ads.

Why do you want to "stream" a website?
An average website is a couple megs (maybe?)
What advantage would "streaming" that have over just loading it?
How would you account for AJAXy sites/services?