Tags: https

On HTTPS and Hard Questions - TimKadlec.com

A great post by Tim following on from the post by Eric I linked to last week.

Is a secure site you can’t access better than an insecure one you can?

He rightly points out that security without performance is exlusionary.

…we’ve made a move to increase the security of the web by doing everything we can to get everything running over HTTPS. It’s undeniably a vital move to make. However this combination—poor performance but good security—now ends up making the web inaccessible to many.

Security. Performance. Accessibility. All three matter.

Securing Web Sites Made Them Less Accessible – Eric’s Archived Thoughts

This is a heartbreaking observation by Eric. He’s not anti-HTTPS by any stretch, but he is pointing out that caching servers become a thing of the past on a more secure web.

Can we do anything? For users of up-to-date browsers, yes: service workers create a “good” man in the middle that sidesteps the HTTPS problem, so far as I understand. So if you’re serving content over HTTPS, creating a service worker should be one of your top priorities right now, even if it’s just to do straightforward local caching and nothing fancier.

Seriously, though. What is a progressive web app? – Amberley Romo – Medium

What an excellent question! And what an excellent bit of sleuthing to get to the bottom of it. This is like linguistic spelunking on the World Wide Web.

Oh, and of course I love the little sidenote at the end.

BBC News on HTTPS – BBC Design + Engineering – Medium

BBC News has switched to HTTPS—hurrah!

Here, one of the engineers writes on Ev’s blog about the challenges involved. Personally, I think this is far more valuable and inspiring to read than the unempathetic posts claiming that switching to HTTPS is easy.

Update: Paul found the original URL for this …weird that they don’t link to it from the syndicated version.

A cartoon intro to DNS over HTTPS – Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog

This is a great illustrated explanation of how DNS resolution works.

Google and HTTP

I share many of these concerns.

The web is huge. Even bigger than Google. I love that the web preserves all the work. I don’t think anyone has the right to change the web so they no longer work.

We need more phishing sites on HTTPS!

All the books, Montag.

If we want a 100% encrypted web then we need to encrypt all sites, despite whether or not you agree with what they do/say/sell/etc… 100% is 100% and it includes the ‘bad guys’ too.

Secure Contexts Everywhere | Mozilla Security Blog

I’m all in favour of HTTPS everywhere, but this kind of strong-arming just feels like blackmail to me.

All new CSS properties won’t work without HTTPS‽ Come on!

I thought Mozilla was better than this.

Salva de la Puente - What is a PWA

Here’s a nice one-sentence definition for the marketing folk:

A Progressive Web App is a regular website following a progressive enhancement strategy to deliver native-like user experiences by using modern Web standards.

But if you’re talking to developers, I implore you to concretely define a Progressive Web App as the combination of HTTPS, a service worker, and a Web App Manifest.

Chrome to force .dev domains to HTTPS via preloaded HSTS

Well, I guess it’s time to change all my locally-hosted sites from .dev domains to .test. Thanks, Google.

Yes, That Web Project Should Be a PWA · An A List Apart Article

A fantastic piece by Aaron who—once again—articulates what I’ve been thinking:

Your site—every site—should be a PWA.

He clearly explains the building blocks of progressive web apps—HTTPS, a manifest file, and a service worker—before describing different scenarios for different kinds of sites:

• Informational
• Periodical
• Transactional
• Social
• Software
• Institutional

Progressive Web Apps may seem overly technical or beyond the needs of your project, but they’re really not. They’re just a shorthand for quality web experiences—experiences that can absolutely make a difference in our users’ lives.

Highly recommended!

Introducing PWAs

The slides from Calum’s presentation about progressive web apps. There are links throughout to some handy resources.

How to turn your website into a PWA | Max Böck - Frontend Web Developer

This primer on progressive web apps starts by dispelling some myths:

1. Your thing does not have to be an “Application” to be a PWA.
2. Your thing does not have to be a Javascript-powered single page app.
3. PWAs are not specifically made for Google or Android.
4. PWAs are ready and safe to use today.

Then it describes the three-step programme for turning your thing into a progressive web app:

1. The Manifest.
2. Go HTTPS.
3. The Service Worker.

Your Site—Any Site—Should be a PWA | Aaron Gustafson

Tell it, brother!

PWAs don’t require you use a particular JavaScript framework or any JavaScript framework at all. You don’t need to be building a Single Page App either.

ngrok - secure introspectable tunnels to localhost

This looks like a useful tool, not just for testing locally-hosted sites (say, at a device lab), but also for making locally-hosted sites run on HTTPS so you can test service workers.

Amber Wilson: HTTPS Poem

How wonderful is this‽ The latest research task I set for Amber was on HTTPS, and she has delivered her findings …as a poem!

Retrofit Your Website as a Progressive Web App — SitePoint

Turning your existing website into a progressive web “app”—a far more appealing prospect than trying to create an entirely new app-shell architecture:

…they are an enhancement of your existing website which should take no longer than a few hours and have no negative effect on unsupported browsers.

PushCrew Push Notifications for HTTP websites

A nasty service that Harry noticed in his role as chronicler of dark patterns—this exploits the way that browser permissions are presented below the line of death.

Troy Hunt: HTTPS adoption has reached the tipping point

Things are looking good for HTTPS.

The Guardian has moved to https 🔒 | Info | The Guardian

Details of The Guardian’s switch to HTTPS.