This is interesting, I've never heard of Gemini before... shame on me.
My first thoughts as an older internet builder, is that you're going to need a `mod_php` of some kind, call it `mod_gemini` for Apache to allow hosts and hosting ISPs to basically just have the ability to ftp and present "webpages" (what are they called, "geminipages"?) - same for nginx, caddy, etc. but not as trivial as it needs to present on another port.
Asking people to host their own webserver is basically the biggest show-stopper at this stage. Offering easy drop-in solutions like we used to have in the earlier days of PHP is crucial.
I had a look at the markup and a priori, it seems very straight forward, almost markdown like, which I like. Consider adding support to gemini to popular static site generators like Hugo etc.
From there you can build a small golang or python local client, like the early "dropbox client", living as a service on your computer that would convert html via beautifulsoup or other `outline.com` type converter to gemini on the fly, host it locally including local server, including proxy-ing the web links you visit, stripping all the javascript crap and cookies-we-want-to-fill-your-pantry-click-here-or-die-a-thousand-modals.
Sure, you won't have half the web working, but you still will have most of the important parts. Imagine browsing the web with Safari reader, almost a dream at this stage.
The content is what makes the web, not the interactivity, as much as people would like to believe. The essence of the internet is the thoughts it carries, not buttons that wobble when you hover them.
At that point, you can start talking about caching of online services in the gemini space - sort of like a shared global cache of internet content - with only the content and images/media making it through, start with blogs and websites that care about markup quality... No one will care at this stage because it's too niche, and because you're not caching linkedin or social medias, leave that crap behind please.
By that stage, start thinking about a search engine and classifiers, and you start having your own island of "new internet" going in the opposite direction of the metaverse, and "the people" (basically anyone that has installed an ad-blocker) will jump in with two legs, two arms, and their entire being - they just don't know it yet.
It's not that popular, there is literally just tens of gemini servers, for now you are not missing much.
Ironically there is no good search engine for Gemini; there is one at gemini://geminispace.info/ but it is shockingly bad, given how tiny geminispace is
There's a lot more than tens, see gemini://medusae.space/ (though ~20% of the links are down, I wish Gemini had free "static site" hosting like GitHub Pages, that didn't depend on the site owner continually babysitting or paying for hosting).
What do you find bad about it? I've never had any issues. Yes, it's not as scarily effective as Google at answering the questions you ask, but it's operating in a different environment and to a different set of principles. In particular, it doesn't track who follows what links which I imagine makes it harder to sort links by relevance.
My first thoughts as an older internet builder, is that you're going to need a `mod_php` of some kind, call it `mod_gemini` for Apache to allow hosts and hosting ISPs to basically just have the ability to ftp and present "webpages" (what are they called, "geminipages"?) - same for nginx, caddy, etc. but not as trivial as it needs to present on another port.
Asking people to host their own webserver is basically the biggest show-stopper at this stage. Offering easy drop-in solutions like we used to have in the earlier days of PHP is crucial.
I had a look at the markup and a priori, it seems very straight forward, almost markdown like, which I like. Consider adding support to gemini to popular static site generators like Hugo etc.
From there you can build a small golang or python local client, like the early "dropbox client", living as a service on your computer that would convert html via beautifulsoup or other `outline.com` type converter to gemini on the fly, host it locally including local server, including proxy-ing the web links you visit, stripping all the javascript crap and cookies-we-want-to-fill-your-pantry-click-here-or-die-a-thousand-modals.
Sure, you won't have half the web working, but you still will have most of the important parts. Imagine browsing the web with Safari reader, almost a dream at this stage.
The content is what makes the web, not the interactivity, as much as people would like to believe. The essence of the internet is the thoughts it carries, not buttons that wobble when you hover them.
At that point, you can start talking about caching of online services in the gemini space - sort of like a shared global cache of internet content - with only the content and images/media making it through, start with blogs and websites that care about markup quality... No one will care at this stage because it's too niche, and because you're not caching linkedin or social medias, leave that crap behind please.
By that stage, start thinking about a search engine and classifiers, and you start having your own island of "new internet" going in the opposite direction of the metaverse, and "the people" (basically anyone that has installed an ad-blocker) will jump in with two legs, two arms, and their entire being - they just don't know it yet.