Why there’s no European Google?
And why it is a good thing!
My answer to the European Commission "call for evidence on Open Source."
https://ploum.net/2026-01-22-why-no-european-google.html
#geminiprotocol link: gemini://ploum.net/2026-01-22-why-no-european-google.gmi
My Gemini capsule shows up in a red-ish theme with a skyscraper icon in Lagrange. Can I customize this somehow?
I've successfully installed gemserv on YunoHost and setup my capsule:
To share what I've learned along the way, I've written my first gemlog documenting the process:
gemini://thoughts.kobel.fyi/2026-01-23-howto-install-gemserv-on-yunohost.gmi
Why there’s no European Google?
And why it is a good thing!
My answer to the European Commission "call for evidence on Open Source."
https://ploum.net/2026-01-22-why-no-european-google.html
#geminiprotocol link: gemini://ploum.net/2026-01-22-why-no-european-google.gmi
New story on ferenbrooke.com:
Titanium, Ruin and Strife
A broken man walks home. He can't stop seeing things that disturb him, can't find any sense of peace.
Horror/character study. Very self-indulgent.
Free to read and worth the price of admission!
#geminiprotocol gemini://ferenbrooke.com/short-stories/titanium-ruin-strife.gmi
Web: https://ferenbrooke.com/short-stories/titanium-ruin-strife.html
#horrorlit #weirdfiction #horrorcommunity #writingcommunity #horror
New story on ferenbrooke.com:
Titanium, Ruin and Strife
A broken man walks home. He can't stop seeing things that disturb him, can't find any sense of peace.
Horror/character study. Very self-indulgent.
Free to read and worth the price of admission!
#geminiprotocol gemini://ferenbrooke.com/short-stories/titanium-ruin-strife.gmi
Web: https://ferenbrooke.com/short-stories/titanium-ruin-strife.html
#horrorlit #weirdfiction #horrorcommunity #writingcommunity #horror
Ford reusing the Capri name for the most generic car you’ve ever seen in your life is just sad.
@robb
Like Google is using the me Gemini for AI, although there is the Gemini protocol, that is around since 2019 and provides secure connections.
Made me sad as well.
Cause now, every f... web search will point to the AI and the Gemini protocol gets drowned ... like the original name giver Gemini capsule or the astrological sign ...
Sorry for being dramatic here. ;)
I've recently gotten hooked to the Gemini protocol. This obsession came about after I learned about the Tildeverse over XMPP, registered for tilde.pink, and started playing with the public_gemini directory. If you can write basic Markdown, you can write Gemtext with minimal differences. It is really easy to create a capsule (webpage) from nothing. As such, I loved it except for one small nitpick.
I am really used to using scripts for fun behaviour. For example, on my own webpage, I usually greet newcomers using their time of day instead of simple greetings like "good to see you" or "hello". I don't have a clue why I prefer this other than "it's funny". However, Gemini doesn't provide any means of scripting in their spec. As such, you cannot script Gemini capsules on most Gemini servers, including gmid which is used by tilde.pink.
I was thinking of solutions for this, and I concluded that I should probably look into templating and scheduled builds for this task. My reasoning for this is that it provides the illusion of scripted behaviour while remaining statically built for the small web. This could also be used in many Gemini servers as it creates Gemtext files from templates. This would make Gemini scriptable while retaining it's purpose.
I'm planning to design this in Ruby, mostly as an influence from Jekyll. If anyone wants to talk about it more with me, please let me know, as I am open to ideas. I also plan to write a post about the Tildeverse when I'm well rested. More specifically, about my thoughts regarding the community.
#tildeverse #tilde #geminiprotocol #web #programming #ruby #jekyll #tech #technology #opensource #SmallWeb
