January 13, 2026
Google ghosted Lynx
Text-Based Web Browsers
Old-school browsers crash into modern websites and the crowd goes wild
TLDR: A deep dive shows text-only browsers struggle with modern web features, often just dumping content and ignoring interactivity. Commenters split between declaring them dead, championing accessible tools like edbrowse and chawan, and raging at big gatekeepers like Google and Cloudflare—raising real questions about access and the future of a simpler web.
The web went full retro—and the comments went full drama. A developer ranted that text-only browsers like Lynx, ELinks, and w3m can’t handle modern features: disclosure widgets show everything, data suggestions get ignored, and fancy pop-ups and dialogs just dump their content on screen. Translation: these minimalist browsers read like the internet stripped down to just words, no makeup, no magic.
Cue the crowd. Doomers declared the text-only dream over, with one lamenting these tools will “fall into oblivion.” Meanwhile, rebels hyped alternatives: edbrowse was praised for accessibility (its lead dev is blind) and for making Wikipedia feel like reading a book. Another fan shouted out chawan, a terminal browser that tries to act like the real deal—CSS, JavaScript, even images—though still quirky.
Then came the spicy subplot: gatekeeping. Cloudflare suspicion and Google reportedly blocking Lynx searches had commenters screaming “robots only,” cracking nostalgia jokes (“try Altavista!”), and dropping Gemini references as the cozy, text-first escape. The big fight: Is the modern web shutting the door on simple, accessible browsing—or can clever tools and protocols keep the calm, book-like web alive? Either way, the vibe was half funeral, half punk revival, with memes, memories, and mild chaos.
Key Points
- •The article tests ELinks, Lynx, and w3m, excluding Browsh because it relies on Firefox.
- •Text-based browsers render plain HTML without CSS or JavaScript, showing only minimal semantic styling.
- •<details>/<summary> content is always shown as open in text-based browsers, making pages verbose but usable.
- •<datalist> is ignored; inputs revert to plain text fields and Lynx may flag it as “bad HTML.”
- •<dialog> and Popover API are unsupported: dialog content is always visible, and form method="dialog" features do not work.