The web I want is available via a distributed web browser.

[WebWeWantBot]

---

title: The web I want is available via a distributed web browser.
date: 2025-06-09T21:34:55.087Z
submitter: PRIVATE
number: 6847537fac8ad100a5f1e360
tags: [ ]
discussion: https://github.com/WebWeWant/webwewant.fyi/discussions/
status: [ discussing || in-progress || complete ]
related:

• title:
  url:
  type: [ article || explainer || draft || spec || note || discussion ]

---

The web I want is not constrained by screen or by location. The web I want is present everywhere. I want to use any website, no matter how complex, by connecting my smartphone to a client browser device to get full keyboard, mouse and display functionality, and I want those client devices to be universally available.

That could be done by creating a distributed web browser that runs in server mode on my smartphone and in client mode on client devices. Client devices would accept user input and display web pages. When not connected to a client device, the browser on my smartphone would run as a conventional browser. On connection to a client device it would switch to a distributed mode and serve up resources needed by the client. I could securely connect to any such device because only the server node on my smartphone would have assess to my login credentials, browsing history, etc. The client node would accept user input via a connected keyboard and mouse, and would display web pages on a connected monitor. It would send resource requests to the server node on my smartphone, which would acquire the resources and send them back to the client node for display. The client node could be a device I own, one belonging to someone else or a publicly accessible device.

Implementing such a distributed browser might be done by modifying the open source Chromium code base, adding processes to manage the browser mode and client/server communication, and modifying how the Chromium resource switch component routes resource requests and responses. The design of such a system is described in patent US10614133B2, which details the flow of requests and responses based on browser mode:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US10614133B2/en

The advantage to such a system would be to free users from needing any computing device other than their smartphone. The only other thing they would need is access to a client device. That could be a cheap connection portal for attaching a keyboard, mouse and monitor (which they'd likely already own), or could be an inexpensive, portable Chromebook-like device.

I believe this would result in a great improvement in how we use the internet, untethering us, in many cases, from the computers we so rely on. It would also open the door for the design of innovative client hardware, such as user-owned connection devices, public kiosks and built-in, dedicated I/O portals.

Smartphones are ubiquitous and are our connection to the world of information available on the internet, but we live in a world where one also needs other computing devices to fully experience and efficiently work with complex websites. A distributed web browser would improve that world by eliminating our need for, and our dependence on, those other devices.

---

If posted, this will appear at https://webwewant.fyi/wants/6847537fac8ad100a5f1e360/

[bradisbell]

This capability already exists in many (most?) smartphones, and has been around on commonly available smartphones for at least 15 years, far before the patent you referenced.

Just take your phone and plug it into any USB-C dock or monitor with built-in USB-C. The phones that support this capability will use DisplayPort alternative mode, along with USB 2.0 support for the keyboard/mouse and other devices like Ethernet adapters.