Remixing The Web: Enhancing Tailoring Using Programmable Proxies

This note introduces re:mix, an infrastructure for presenting tailored web applications as services. How can users most effectively tailor this web content for mobile consumption? Currently, there are two approaches to tailoring web interfaces: in-browser extensions and programmable proxies. Browser extensions facilitate direct-manipulation tailoring, leverage the massive browser-based developer ecology, and build upon a ubiquitous platform. Unfortunately, existing browserbased tailoring systems yield a client-side application, inhibiting their portability, especially to stripped-down mobile browsers. Programmable proxies enable the tailored application to be deployed as a service, but current systems lack the environmental benefits of the browser. This paper introduces a “best-of-both-worlds” approach to tailoring web pages through the insight that the browser platform can also serve tailored applications.