March 18, 2026
Surf’s up—and so is the drama
Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web
Tiny 2‑file web toy brings back random surfing—nostalgia vs nitpicks
TLDR: Wander is a tiny two‑file widget that lets you randomly hop between personal websites, reviving old‑school web surfing. The comments split between warm nostalgia, repost gripes, browser tips, and a humble dev admitting it was a late‑night 1.5‑hour build and promising an easier “Open in new tab” button as the network grows.
Wander is a two‑file, drop‑it‑on‑your‑site toy that lets you “channel surf” the small web—those quirky personal pages most people forgot existed. Click a link, hop to another site’s Wander console, and keep going. It’s DIY simple: grab the ZIP, upload index.html and wander.js, and you’re in the club. Live consoles are already up at susam.net, dahlstrand.net, and more, with the readme spelling it all out.
But the comments? That’s where the show is. One camp cheered, calling it “StumbleUpon but indie”—pure nostalgia for random web wandering. Another camp slapped the “duplicate” label immediately, sparking the usual repost police energy. Practical folks chimed in with a hack: right‑click the little embedded page (the “frame”) in Firefox and choose “Open Frame in New Tab” to bust it out. Meanwhile, the creator showed up like a calm hero: built in 1.5 hours at 2 a.m., not polished, and already considering an “Open” button for easier tab‑hopping. Oh, and the network’s growing—“54 URLs so far,” the dev tallied, as new sites get linked in.
Verdict: a tiny throwback tool with big vibes. Nostalgic surfers vs. nitpickers, helpful hacks, and a humble dev promising upgrades—exactly the kind of small‑web drama we live for.
Key Points
- •Wander is a small web console for browsing random sites from a community of personal websites.
- •It operates across multiple websites, with links provided to consoles on other domains.
- •Setup requires downloading a ZIP from the Codeberg repo and placing index.html and wander.js in a /wander/ directory.
- •Configuration involves editing wander.js per the repository’s README instructions.
- •Site owners can join the network by sharing their console link in a Codeberg community thread (issues/1).