Wander small web explorer
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 11 blog directories by recommenders
A tiny, decentralised tool that sends you to random personal websites of the small web, so you can find interesting pages quickly. Critics mostly report errors and page-reload loops in some browsers.
A tiny, decentralised tool that sends you to random personal websites of the small web, so you can find interesting pages quickly. Critics mostly report errors and page-reload loops in some browsers.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1 month
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Finds interesting personal sites quickly
“made the network richer with plenty of good web page recommendations from the small web of personal websites”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Ask HN: What did your 'Show HN' project turn into?” “This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “Already found so many interesting things.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” - Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Swurf – Swipe through the real web”
Self-hosted, no server code or database
“Wander is a small, decentralised, self-hosted web console that lets visitors explore interesting personal websites”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “List of personal sites that host Wander Console, a tool to explore the small web” “There is no server-side code, no database, nothing to install.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” Fun and refreshing to browse
“The experience and resulting websites are very refreshing.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “I played a bit with it and it _felt_ special”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “A tiny, decentralised tool to explore the small web” “it is fun within its niche”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Meta VR Glasses” - Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web”
Easy to add to your site
“This is excellent. Thank you! I've now added it to my website”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “Really neat. Immediately added to my own small blog”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “Seems like a perfect addition to any links page.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” - Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “You Need a Webring”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Errors and reload loops in some browsers
“I love the idea. One small thing - Ran into a problem almost immediately”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “I get an infinite loop of checking my connection and the page reloading, making it difficult to navigate back.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “"SyntaxError: Missing ; before statement" on line 136”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” - Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web”
Pages block embedding in frames
“Love this, but I need it to allow me to break the frame.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web” “It would be nice if it wasn’t so framed in.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Wander – A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web”
Other blog directories people recommend
The four most recommended other blog directories, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kagi Small Web | 46 | 30 | 61% | 9 | — | — |
| Wander small web explorerThis page | 31 | 3 | 91% | 7 | 1 mo3 owners | Approved |
| Ooh.directory | 26 | 5 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Personal blog frontpage | 21 | 1 | 95% | 2 | — | — |
| Bubbles.town | 16 | 4 | 80% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
33 of the 42 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“my own instantiation is on https://www.heyhomepage.com/wander/ I didn't look at it for some weeks and now that I did it seemed to have grown more!”
“With some lo-fi music it really helps with anxiety.”
“it is fun within its niche”
“it has history baked in and mostly compatible with Obsidian vaults”
“I recently added Wander to a website of mine”
“Another option is a Wander”
“There's wander: https://susam.net/wander/”
“That’s awesome, I’ll take a look at Wander this afternoon”
“I really like that take on discovery of smaller curated websites.”
“made the network richer with plenty of good web page recommendations from the small web of personal websites”
“Wander is a small, decentralised, self-hosted web console that lets visitors explore interesting personal websites”
“Still use Wander everyday”
“I love the wander page you've built.”
“Wander executes on that idea rather brilliantly.”
“"SyntaxError: Missing ; before statement" on line 136”
“This is excellent. Thank you! I've now added it to my website”
“This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes.”
“I played a bit with it and it _felt_ special”
“It would be nice if it wasn’t so framed in.”
“Already found so many interesting things.”
“The experience and resulting websites are very refreshing.”
“kudos to you for figuring out a decentralized solution”
“I get an infinite loop of checking my connection and the page reloading, making it difficult to navigate back.”
“I like how this is a decentralized graph, the next step in their evolution.”
“I love the idea. One small thing - Ran into a problem almost immediately”
“Really neat. Immediately added to my own small blog”
“Just to clarify, I like Wander.”
“It did not work in my browser even with JS enabled.”
“Seems like a perfect addition to any links page.”
“This is actually pretty cool.”
“Love this, but I need it to allow me to break the frame.”
“This thread inspired me to build a decentralised tool to explore the small web”
“There is no server-side code, no database, nothing to install.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.