I wonder why they decided to go with the specific language order that the messages appear in on the new page. First English is shown, which makes sense as it’s the most widely spoken language in the world. But then Arabic appears, which has far fewer speakers than e.g. Spanish or Mandarin. French and Russian are also shown before the Spanish message finally shows up. Perhaps I’m reading into the details too much, but this seems somewhat biased to me.
It reminds me of the “Hello” message that appears after (re-)installing iOS, which also cycles through different languages, but there the order is at least randomized iirc.
It does use the same order as the page you link to apart from English coming first, but where does that come from. It strikes me that it is alphabetic order in English if you call Mandarin Chinese.
Actually, they get a smaller first response for simple GET-Requests, because the Javascript will not be served. It will only be loaded and served by proper browsers loading the page.
I wonder why they decided to go with the specific language order that the messages appear in on the new page. First English is shown, which makes sense as it’s the most widely spoken language in the world. But then Arabic appears, which has far fewer speakers than e.g. Spanish or Mandarin. French and Russian are also shown before the Spanish message finally shows up. Perhaps I’m reading into the details too much, but this seems somewhat biased to me.
It reminds me of the “Hello” message that appears after (re-)installing iOS, which also cycles through different languages, but there the order is at least randomized iirc.
The choice to include Russian is interesting, given the times.
I think that it includes all the official languages of the UN [0], which is about as good as choice as any here.
[0]: https://www.un.org/
That explains the choice but not the order.
It does use the same order as the page you link to apart from English coming first, but where does that come from. It strikes me that it is alphabetic order in English if you call Mandarin Chinese.
I was sad about not including my language, but at least it comfort me.
It may be like how some country listings are implemented: United States / English first, then the rest alphabetically.
This is followed here: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish.
The languages switch too fast. Many readers will not have finished reading the text.
The switch to HTTPS means I can no longer use it to check if a public Wi-Fi network is working.
You can use a service explicitly meant for that like http://neverssl.com.
Then they succeeded?
> the domain isn't intended to be a general purpose endpoint for things like availability testing so we do not encourage that kind of usage
I didn't know they changed the page until I saw this article. Interesting.
Maybe it could be further optimized, if it did return a plaintext answer, if the user agent is curl or similar.
IMHO they should have followed some opinionated advice on how to build a website:
https://modernmotherfuckingwebsite.dreamstation.systems/
Or indeed the classic:
https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/
It's an example. It should be exemplary, in size and in simplicity.
Actually, they get a smaller first response for simple GET-Requests, because the Javascript will not be served. It will only be loaded and served by proper browsers loading the page.
Ah, OK, fair enough.
It would also be interesting to see the content of the email initially sent to IANA
Sure! It was quite brief but here you go:
Hi,
I noticed that the content on https://example.com has been updated!
Can you share any context on the changes and who worked on them?
I work at Google - would I be able to share your answer on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@ChromeDevs) or on my own personal social media?
I haven't spoken to my team so just asking in a personal capacity at this point, but maybe it could make a fun video!
Thanks, Oliver