Ask HK: Why hasn't bfcache been implemented more broadly across the internet?

3 points

3 years ago

Often there is an obsession with something that you just can't let go, and to me, that's the fact that bfcache hasn't been more widely implemented to this day on internet. Essentially, bfcache allows a page to be stored in the browser cache, so when you browse back and forth, it instantly loads from the cache instead of reloading. This is a godsend if you frequently navigate between pages, such as going from site A to site B and then back to site A.

I remember back in the day when Opera still ran on Presto, and I absolutely loved this feature. However, Firefox has some settings that enable this functionality, but even now, it doesn't work on all pages. It's particularly annoying that it doesn't work on relatively simple pages like old.reddit.com.

Anyway, what is your take on this? It just seems like one of those amazing ideas that browser developers, for some weird reason, are too hesitant to implement. I wish there was a way to force bfcache on some pages. I understand that it might break the expected behavior on certain pages, so it should be implemented on a site-by-site basis or even on specific pages. It shouldn't be too complicated to make this work on simple pages with little to no JavaScript.

There have been discussions about this on bugzilla, and I believe similar talks have taken place in the Chromium project. Concerns about enabling a feature like this more broadly, essentially freezing all the states of page A while you navigate to page B, revolve around potential security risks. However, honestly, this whole thing seems pretty trivial. Putting a 1-minute time limit or so for the page to be removed from the cache could address those concerns in my opinion.

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