What happened to the mobile Web? I remember about ten years ago, the mobile Web was spoken of like a pending miracle. Even while many Twitter users still Tweeted via text messages from hardly-smart phones, people expected open mobile-friendly websites to become the new normal. From 2008-2012 responsive design (allowing website scaling to fit various screen sizes) was the subject of design conferences. And while technically, HTML & CSS have (virtually) always been able to build a “Perfect F’ing Website” – design elements moving and scaling were new. For the most part, on the early mobile Web, if you wanted a mobile website, you had to recognize a user agent and serve a separate site, built for mobile, from a subdomain. The mobile Web of that era lacked luster, but optimistic predictions foretold something beautiful to come. The Mobile Web Should Be Here In this, the year of our lord 2020, responsive websites are nearly the default state of the Web. Even someone without technical knowledge can use a template or theme (many are very good) and have a responsive site. Internet speeds on mobile are a tremendous improvement from a decade ago, and phones are powerful computers. Currently, much of the Web is mobile-friendly (in part because Google is pushing the world that way). Yet, for the companies monetizing as advertising platforms, data is the most important thing. And even if you think of them as something else, most of the largest websites are, in fact, ad tech companies. In short, we could…We Need An Open Mobile Web, We Have Digital Land Grabbing