What is it able to? How does it look like?
Our WWW has reached a unbelievable complexity. The web is full of ads, pop-ups and trackers. So one could just reset that story and start over again. Reflecting what the web was about in the first place, then reimplement with more modern tech stack. So here it is:
An electronic library of interconnected text documents
and do it complete new and very minimal. Its already some years and therefor not only an idea, but instead part of the observable reality. Out there, within the same internet. In a parallel world living next to the World Wide Web the Gemini Space.
Here is a screenshot of a browser built for the Gemini Space. Its available here and its Free Software: https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/ You can also follow the Author in the fediverso : https://skyjake.fi/@lagrange
Invitation accepted? Now you can visit different "capsules" (read https://www.spaceflighthistories.com/post/gemini-5 for context and yes it uses its year :1965 as the port ) using gemini:// instead of https://
The most outstanding difference is the minimalism. I show you the german newspaper taz.de as an example. Because they are so good, they are also natively inside the gemini space.
But first the default website https://taz.de, that people "normally" read:
As that very normal human, you can right-click "show source" and you see, its still possible, but not very helpful. Todays html is not meant to be written bei hand anymore. (but can be done 💪) it will look like this:
I got the gemini version on the same day from gemini://taz.de and it looked like this:
Just Text, nothing more. No Ads in between, no pop-up windows. Also because such things are not possible ;) and the View in the Source shows this:
Ha, thats still readable by a human being. un-be-liav-able.
What else is there to explore?
All things can be started over. New search engines were implemented. There is a new social network, and fediverso-connectivity. There is a tamagotchi like community garden where people are pouring virtual ascii water over each others plants. Another entry to wikipedia...
examples:
TLGS - "Totally Legit" Gemini Search gemini://tlgs.one
my plant gemini://astrobotany.mozz.us/public/46767228146d4dffa05a4ff24e855502
wikipedia: gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/wp.cgi/
and thats all with minimal Data. You can start your own server even on an "Pi Pico". Yes, not raspberry pi, the small one you can get cheaper than a veggie-burger.