I'll take a stab at it. What is the web, really? Gotta be stuff you see and interact with in web browsers right? Sure, you can get to HN, YouTube and Instagram in a browser. But by traffic for example, how much of activity on HN, Instagram and YouTube combined is through a browser? I mean, gotta be pretty low...like 5%? Just a guess, but remember all the app usage and TV usage for those sites is pretty big.

So if 95% of traffic/users/whatever metric are not using a web browser for those activities, is it really the web? It can't be called the web just 'cause they use HTTPS. It's gotta be a 'world wide web' experience, which I think a good proxy for would be using a web browser.

I got no horse in this race, just thinking out loud about it.

“The web” is, by definition, a collection of things that are loosely connected and accessible (searchable, etc). While the current internet is still “a web”, it’s mostly a web of 2-3 massive properties, entirely operated by the same 2-3 companies, completely devoided of public apis (and sometimes even web accessible content). The fact that sometimes they have an html version makes them “websites”, I guess, but not really a “web of nodes” the same way it used to be

Another common phenomenon these days is that lots of businesses don’t even bother having a web presence - it’s all instagram, WhatsApp and tiktok accounts, mostly only accessible via apps (or worse, chat platforms like discord)

What other way is there to access HN but the website?

Agree YouTube and Instagram are probably mostly apps which puts them in the “Internet” category but not “world wide web”.

Technically there is an API and there are some client apps for HN. No way they make up 95% of traffic though.

WWW != Internet, yes. I would count mobile apps as part of the web too, they're simply another sort of "browser."

I think the idea is that those are websites on the web, which are distinct from the web itself.

There are several meaningful difference between surfing Youtube and surfing the web. These include ownership, access, review, exposure, and more.

the web was the clicking of links from site to site. the interconnectedness of information. Searching the web was the start of browsing but it was not the only means of traversing.

Honestly the web died long ago imo. Wikipedia and other wikis are the only places that feel like the old web to me now.