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Project Gemini

320 points by andsoitis

by graypegg

2 subcomments

I really enjoyed messing around with Gemini a while ago! But after the "messing around" stage with the protocol itself, the restrictions inherent to gemtext sapped my excitement around it.
It's a mark up language squarely focused on those that write text, but arduous to use if you want to share things you've illustrated, which is most of what I share online that isn't tech related. There's of course the argument that inline images/a spec'd way to expose an image directory listing with thumbnails/etc would only serve to distract or exploit you... but that also ignores the fact that people make art for your eyeballs too. Text is certainly the first class citizen, where images/music/video are all tied for second class, accessible only by downloading them 1 by 1.
That does mean it's perfectly fit for purpose! I wouldn't say it's bad just because I don't get my specific needs met. Someone who's needs are met by Gemini will love it.

by userbinator

6 subcomments

Maybe this is just me showing my age, but I don't understand why reinvent everything when you could just go back to something like HTML 2.0 or even 3.2 with some minor changes. I probably hate what happened with the "modern web" as much as the Gemini developers, but going full NIH is unlikely to be a good solution when there's an existing "unmodern web" to develop for, and as a bonus, can be experienced even with a modern browser.
Never underestimate interoperability.

by billyhoffman

0 subcomment

I built and run a search engine and a "Wayback Machine" for Gemini:
gemini://kennedy.gemi.dev
There are ~4K hosts and ~1M documents/images/files which make for nice playground with experimenting with crawlers, indexers, and more. Its a nice hobby. Lots of primarily static sites, and CGI is used to add some interactivity:
gemini://gemi.dev/cgi-bin/moon.py

by ecliptik

2 subcomments

From what I remember about the name, it's derived from NASA space programs. Where Gopher is Mercury, Web is Apollo and Gemini is in between.
Gemini is a new internet protocol which:
- Is heavier than gopher
- Is lighter than the web
- Will not replace either
- Strives for maximum power to weight ratio
- Takes user privacy very seriously

by pianoben

1 subcomments

Gemini was so much fun during lockdown - I loved the distraction of a new simple protocol, and the challenge of writing a gui client for it.
Can't say I'm surprised that it hasn't taken the world by storm, but it's still a cozy part of the Internet.

by mmaunder

8 subcomments

Read the 100 word intro and still don't know what this is. Left.

by agiacalone

0 subcomment

I've had a Gemini Capsule (what Gemini calls a 'website/blog' since about 2021. It gets very little traffic, but it's fun to have. Browsing the smallweb is nice in the evenings when I want a high signal-to-noise ratio of interesting content.

by afisxisto

0 subcomment

I created one of the first social networks for it. Still running: https://martinrue.com/station

by debo_

1 subcomments

My main blog is now an "anonymous" gemlog. I use the kineto http proxy to provide a website version as well. I wrote a little deploy script that scrapes my posts and creates an atom XML feed (static doc) that kineto serves for those few people who want to stay up-to-date.
Once a quarter, I batch up the recent posts and bcc a bunch of folks I like to keep in touch with. Some of them respond. This is what I do in place of social media now; outside of email, Discord and WhatsApp are all I use to keep in touch with folks.
I also like to poke around different gemlogs with Lagrange, which is a nice desktop-oriented Gemini client. It's good fun.

by fenomas

0 subcomment

I found it hard to extract any signal from this extremely chatty site. But AFAICT the tagline "basically modernized Gopher" wouldn't be too far off the mark?

by SavaRocks

0 subcomment

I enjoy the smol web and I really think it's a great place for tech enthusiasts.
This is why I created finger://, gemini://, gopher:// and https:// mirrors for by website at sava.rocks
links for all protocols:
https://sava.rocks gemini://sava.rocks gopher://sava.rocks finger://sava.rocks/sava

by throwaway81523

0 subcomment

I feel like to be in the really proper spirit, the software for this should be written in Forth, sort of like CollapseOS.

by cantalopes

1 subcomments

I have read and liked the philosophy, no inline images, no tracking, nondistraction, no extensioms, security, etc.
so i went and downloaded the first android gemini browser from the links called "buran".
Then i surfee around links people posted in here.
Came upon a site gemini://hellomouse.net
First thing i see: an inline image that is against very principles of gemini and shouldn't be allowed
What am i doing wrong?

by bnchrch

0 subcomment

If we maintain this trajectory Gemini is going to have as many dual meanings in the software world as Map.

by TuringTest

1 subcomments

Honest question, how do you discover interesting content over this protocol?
Is there people building the equivalent to web directories and web rings? Or search engines? What are the cultural expectations on navigating other people's published resources?

by rattan12138

0 subcomment

Gemini's simplicity is refreshing! It feels like a cozy corner of the internet focused purely on words and ideas. Kinda perfect for offline reading sessions, almost like finding a quiet spot to when bored. Definitely not for sharing my doodles, but I get why some folks love this minimalist vibe. Exploring random capsules through Lagrange is oddly relaxing.

by Shugyousha

0 subcomment

I like the idea of Gemini and was inspired to write a script to turn my blog posts written in markdown to gemtext. Sadly I still haven't finished that script ...
My main issue with the protocol is that it is requiring creating a new TLS connection for every request. That is indeed a simple approach but I argue that the extra round trip times added due to this are not worth the trade-off for the simplicity gained in this case
Coming up with a simple way to reuse a connection would reduce the round trips needed drastically. If we put our heads together, I feel like we could come up with a way to do that, that doesn't overly complicate the protocol ...

by aeternum

1 subcomments

Too many things are named Gemini

by zoobab

0 subcomment

HTML is a corrupt standard, remember when W3C agreed with DRM as a 'standard'.

by barbazoo

2 subcomments

Unrelated but I went to the linked website, then a while later to Youtube and now I'm getting videos recommended about the Gemini protocol that I have never heard of before today.
I'm on Arc and use uBlock Origin Lite, NextDNS, if I had searched I would have used Kagi. How do they (Google) know?
EDIT: I'm not implying that the gemini project is doing anything wrong here

by enbywithunix

0 subcomment

I rather like Gemini. I have several presences on the protocol, as well as a hefty list of gemlogs I follow. The somewhat slow and niche nature of this corner of the internet has meant that I come and go, rather than using it daily (like I do with the web); but it always feels sort of cozy and welcoming when I do eventually return.

by astrange

1 subcomments

> Project Gemini
I have a theory that the idea you'd call your project "Project X" comes from TV shows.
We work with project codenames and we don't call anything Project X. We just call it X. It feels like adding the word "Project" is something a screenwriter would do to make the dialogue clearer.

by Godisone48

0 subcomment

sun is not doing Allah is doing to accept Islam say that i bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad peace be upon him is his slave and messenger

by rappatic

6 subcomments

Why is everything named Gemini these days?

by dexwiz

1 subcomments

I looked at this a few years ago and it seemed to be a graveyard of toy implementations and personal blogs.

by myaccountonhn

0 subcomment

I'd love a minimal protocol like this that was also somehow scraping resistant.

by karmakaze

1 subcomments

If this is being developed, it should have a more modern description. Comparing it to Gopher is fine as a historical point, but comparing it to http/html is more useful today. I read the faq for geeks and didn't learn much:
> 1.1.1 The dense, jargony answer for geeks in a hurry
> Gemini is an application-level client-server internet protocol for the distribution of arbitrary files, with some special consideration for serving a lightweight hypertext format which facilitates linking between hosted files. Both the protocol and the format are deliberately limited in capabilities and scope, and the protocol is technically conservative, being built on mature, standardised, familiar, "off-the-shelf" technologies like URIs, MIME media types and TLS. Simplicity and finite scope are very intentional design decisions motivated by placing a high priority on user autonomy, user privacy, ease of implementation in diverse computing environments, and defensive non-extensibility. In short, it is something like a radically stripped down web stack. See section 4 of this FAQ document for questions relating to the design of Gemini.
Annoyed that for a system about plain text links, there's no link to "section 4".
The transport sounds like http without saying so. It doesn't go into why it doesn't use http. I'd probably be fine with HTTP and Markdown + image/video links. Maybe the Gemini document capabilities/scope is better but they're not described.
Edit: they are in "4.1.2"[0] Be warned, there's still a lot of beating-around-the-bush.
> 4.1.2 I'm familiar with HTTP and HTML. How is Gemini different?
[0] https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq.gmi#412-im-familiar-with...
Edit 2: Seems opinionated in many stupid-by-todays-needs ways. It feels like text-web made by some group of deniers.

by el3ctron

0 subcomment

as a recent gemini user i like that clean looks, amazing fast page loading if compares with http web, low stimulation feedback, that makes me feel more concentrated and allow me to be less distracted while reading contents. There is a good browser options, graphical but that lovely terminal and hyper-fast ones.
In a world full of marketing/publishers psychopaths, Gemini protocol is a hope and part of human resistance.

by yason

0 subcomment

As someone who got onto the web in HTML 2.0 era I can feel the appeal of Gemini, although I disagree about their attitude towards static inline images. In day-to-day world that's what separated HTML from the earlier text-based hypertext systems that you could run over a terminal connection (or in a window, like AmigaGuide). You could actually have real documents from the internet, on your own screen, without loading up a word processor. White pages, black text in different sizes, blue links, and color images! Cool!
Obviously, Gemini is a niche that's as futile as it can be. It's like going back to living without a running water because once there was a peaceful village, then first came running water, then electricity, and then the whole village was rebuilt into a big city, and the old village is now gone. But the logic goes: if they didn't get running water in the first place, the people who wanted electricity too wouldn't have moved in, and the city wouldn't have been built. So, reverting back to living without running water now will, if it doesn't maybe demolish the city, at least remind me of the good old days.
The problem with the current web is that before, maybe just 10 years ago, you could use a good browser to remove and disable all the user-hostile cruft aimed at you on websites, and maybe browse pages in relative peace. Now the fight has moved to removing and disabling all the user-hostile cruft aimed at you in the browser, that intend to remove the tools you could use to fight the websites, and given the de-facto monopoly of Google that's just incredibly sad.
What's more demoralising is that it's just one slice in the big trend to erode the concept of ownership alltogether. It's a matter of time until you can no longer even try to own your browsing experience. The web will have changed from a place where people could freely download and view other people's documents over HTTP to people using one-way thin-clients with attestation so that the producer can guarantee their website is interpreted correctly as intended. Good luck writing your own browser that does the right thing for you, it won't be served data off the web unless it can prove the client is unmodified and signed by Microsoft. That is, of course, assuming you could still write code yourself for your computer and actually run it on your own without asking permission from the vendor.
It seems that the 20's answer to what Gemini represents is probably something like asking an AI to load a web page, extract the real contents of the document, possibly with cues from accessibility hints, and reproduce the document as text and still images for viewing.

by ChrisArchitect

0 subcomment

Recently:
Six Years of Gemini
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44578143

by blcknight

1 subcomments

So Gopher?

by dang

0 subcomment

Related (and a little hard to sift apart from you-know-what):
Gemini (2023) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45238536 - Sept 2025 (46 comments)
Six Years of Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44578143 - July 2025 (166 comments)
The Gemini protocol as seen by cURL's creator - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43054583 - Feb 2025 (6 comments)
Ask HN: Are you using a Gemini browser? Would you follow a link if posted on HN? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41491928 - Sept 2024 (5 comments)
The Gemini protocol seen by this HTTP client person - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36104533 - May 2023 (107 comments)
Bye, Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37049064 - Aug 2023 (159 comments)
Show HN: Gemini web client in 100 lines of C - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36786239 - July 2023 (45 comments)
The Gemini protocol seen by this HTTP client person - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36104533 - May 2023 (107 comments)
What the eff Is Gemini? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34392811 - Jan 2023 (92 comments)
On the Shortcomings of Gemini Protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31560509 - May 2022 (46 comments)
Lagrange Pre-Release – A Gemini client that also supports Gopher and Finger - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30998033 - April 2022 (30 comments)
Offpunk 1.0: Offline Gemini/Gopher/Web Browsing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30669799 - March 2022 (17 comments)
Gemini is a new internet protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30667545 - March 2022 (72 comments)
Gemini is a little gem - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30072085 - Jan 2022 (122 comments)
Gemini is Solutionism - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30067400 - Jan 2022 (218 comments)
Lagrange: A desktop GUI client for Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29291392 - Nov 2021 (90 comments)
Gemini: The Misaligned Incentives - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28688232 - Sept 2021 (84 comments)
What is this Gemini thing, and why am I excited about it? (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28600436 - Sept 2021 (208 comments)
Gemini's "uselessness" is its killer feature - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27490769 - June 2021 (193 comments)
Why Gemini is not my favorite internet protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27480324 - June 2021 (1 comment)
Gemini Space - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26670464 - April 2021 (27 comments)
Agate, a simple Gemini server written in Rust - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26401158 - March 2021 (34 comments)
Beyond the Web: Gopher, Gemini, and the Rise of the Small Internet - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26359454 - March 2021 (5 comments)
gemini:// space - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25986378 - Feb 2021 (170 comments)
The Tragedy of Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25807633 - Jan 2021 (28 comments)
Hacker News over Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25225810 - Nov 2020 (21 comments)
Show HN: Taurus – A Concurrent Gemini Server - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25045130 - Nov 2020 (5 comments)
A Gopher View of Gemini - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25005307 - Nov 2020 (9 comments)
A look at the Gemini protocol: a brutally simple alternative to the web - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23730408 - July 2020 (347 comments)
Castor: A browser for the small internet (Gemini, Gopher, Finger) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23161922 - May 2020 (75 comments)
Gemini – A new, collaboratively designed internet protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23042424 - May 2020 (62 comments)
---
Bonus: First Gemini AI thread looks to have been:
DeepMind's new Gemini AI will combine LLMs with techniques from AlphaGo - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36495892 - June 2023 (6 comments)
... and the first mammoth one looks to have been:
Gemini AI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38544729 - Dec 2023 (1602 comments)

by RagnarD

1 subcomments

Why provide yet another overload for "Gemini" rather than thinking of something either novel or not in common current usage in a totally different context?

by netdevphoenix

9 subcomments

Why do programmers have so little imagination when it comes to names? It should almost never be the case that project names conflict

by denysvitali

0 subcomment

Not the Gemini I was hoping to see in the front page today :D

by RealCodingOtaku

5 subcomments

I have got only two annoyance on Gemini, lack of inline links and _font styling_, and they are by design (https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq.gmi#44-questions-about-t...)
It's fine for something like HN, but I heavily rely on named links and emphasis on all my blogs and is a dealbreaker.