I spent about 15 minutes writing a Safari content blocker with exactly one rule: no external javascript.

Most websites loaded instantly and scrolled much smoother. If Apple could somehow add this feature to iOS 5 it could breathe new life into original iPads or hell it could breathe new life into PowerPC Macs.

There were some casualties, of course. Some sites and services (Facebook, Twitter, Slack, parts of Youtube, some tumblr themes) use externally hosted javascript to render feeds. On iOS this is inconsequential since most of those services are typically accessed via apps, but I did notice direct links to posts often worked just fine and weren’t dependent on javascript spaghetti.

Because I believe that sites that fall apart using this blocker rule are following bad web practices and because there are plenty of ways to waste server resources with ads instead of my clients’, I’m going to continue using the block, and I’m going to release it. Look for LemonBlock this fall. 🚫🍋