If you’ve ever felt a perplexing sense of nostalgia and longing, for a time period that you have never known, you might have experienced what the writer John Koenig calls “Anemoia”. When I browse the web using a Gemini protocol client, I sense a warm feeling of familiarity that takes me back to the dawn of the internet, even though I was not alive back then, and did not experience the transition from a pre to a post-internet world. Nonetheless, there is something appealing about visualizing the bare bones of the internet; the allure of communication using simple text, no images, and straight to the point.
The Gemini protocol allows the user to browse the web in a fast an efficient way, without having to worry about privacy, distracting targeted ads, forced subscriptions that disrupt the flow of the experience, among other concerns of the modern internet. This relatively recent project was introduced in 2019 by a developed known as Solderpunk, however, this collaborative project remains in constant evolution, thanks to the contributions of many people around the world. This project strives to provide a protocol that maximizes power to weight ratio, without the goal of replacing other protocols, holding the protection of user privacy as one of its core tenets.
My experience with Gemini was very positive, I enjoyed the experience and found reassurance in the fact that there is an alternative to the way we browse the web. This alternative protocol provides an outlet for people that have privacy concerns, or would simply like to take a break from the ads, the images and the overall overwhelming nature of the mainstream version of the internet.
These are the clients that I used and the highlight about the gemlogs that I visited:
Lagrange (Graphic interface): The first site that I visited was Medusae.space and within that site I clicked on the music index, followed by “Conotox music”. In there I found some very interesting and well produced electronic music. Visually, each page had its own color scheme and organization, which made them stand out, despite sharing a similar theme and fonts.
Bollux (Terminal): I only visited Medusae.space using this browser. It has very limited features, which did not include some helpful tools, such as the ability to create bookmarks or look back through the browsing history.
Elaho (Graphical interface for mobile devices): I visited the science index in Medusae.space, specifically the site “aetin.art”. I was able to see a list of current science headlines, however, most links did not open within the Gemini browser, but rather on an external browser such as Safari or Chrome.