{"slug": "wander", "name": "Wander", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "", "recommenders": 8, "commenters": 9, "warners": 0, "score": 7.477, "rising": -0.29, "first": "2026-03-18", "latest": "2026-10-23", "why": "This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 10, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "codeberg.org/susam/wander", "official_url": "https://codeberg.org/susam/wander", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Wander", "Wander Console", "wander"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803438785, "item_id": 50214924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214924", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now that I did it seemed to have grown more!", "excerpt": "Reminds me of the Wander network from Susam Pal (https://www.susam.net). His console is at https://susam.net/wander/ and 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! I like the swiping UI from Swurf though. Being shown just one at a time is calming. I did the same thing for my RSS feed reader... it just randomly pick", "context": "", "use_case": "Random web exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Swurf \u2013 Swipe through the real web"}, {"id": 797407280, "item_id": 49837955, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49837955", "by": "krapp", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "With some lo-fi music it really helps with anxiety.", "excerpt": "I use an app called Wander to do this in my Oculus Quest. With some lo-fi music it really helps with anxiety. It really is fun just picking some random spot on the map, some random neighborhood no tourist would ever think to visit, and poking around. I actually had a hobby of posting \"virtual vacation pictures\" for a while. Not any attempt at a business or going viral or anything, just literally cool things I found a", "context": "", "use_case": "virtual exploration on Oculus Quest", "switched_from": "", "story": "My weird new hobby: Wandering around Tokyo on Google Maps"}, {"id": 780835360, "item_id": 48802210, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802210", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recently added Wander to a website of mine", "excerpt": "I recently added Wander to a website of mine (https://www.heyhomepage.com/wander/). Before that, I became a proud member of the small Tech Makers webring (at the bottom of https://www.theredpanther.org/). Even before that, I just implemented a blogroll (or list of shared links, as I prefer to call it) at https://www.heyhomepage.com/?module=timeline&link=1&view=sharedlist Maybe your blog is also in it!? I manually pic", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "You Need a Webring"}, {"id": 771482864, "item_id": 48217679, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48217679", "by": "antics9", "date": "2026-05-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There\u2019s wander: https://susam.net/wander/", "excerpt": "There\u2019s wander: https://susam.net/wander/", "context": "", "use_case": "Sharing lists of websites", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Declaring War on the Web"}, {"id": 769368080, "item_id": 48085505, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48085505", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like that take on discovery of smaller curated websites", "excerpt": "Don't know where your colors and style come from, but imo you're doing fine on that front. Nice project also! Bookmarked. In the same vein; I stumbled upon Wander (pun intended) by browsing a HN post from yesterday. I really like that take on discovery of smaller curated websites. https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#readme", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An index of indie web/blog indexes"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["exploring the small web", "random web exploration", "virtual exploration on oculus quest", "sharing lists of websites", "discovering personal blogs", "random small-web exploration"], "compared": [{"slug": "stumbleupon", "name": "StumbleUpon", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 787838512, "item_id": 49239907, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49239907", "by": "podviaznikov", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've launched it only three weeks ago but tons of people tried it already", "excerpt": "Building native WYSIWYG Markdown editor for mac, iPhone and iPad. I've launched it only three weeks ago but tons of people tried it already, so I'm spending more time to make it better. It's called Wander. And it has history baked in and mostly compatible with Obsidian vaults. https://wander.md", "context": "", "use_case": "WYSIWYG Markdown editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 777420832, "item_id": 48588802, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588802", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is a tool you host on your website to become part of the Wander Console network", "excerpt": "I have been maintaining my own list of directories where one can submit their indie/personal websites to. In alphabetical order, here is what it looks like right now: https://blogroll.org/ https://blogs.hn/ (by @surprisetalk) https://hnpwd.github.io/ (I am one of the maintainers) https://iii.social/ (by @freshman_dev) https://indieblog.page/ (by @splitbrain) https://kagi.com/smallweb/ (by @freediver) https://marginal", "context": "", "use_case": "personal website discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "A website that lists websites to submit your website to"}, {"id": 767573984, "item_id": 47973374, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47973374", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My recent project named 'Wander Console'", "excerpt": "My recent project named 'Wander Console' has gathered a growing community of independent website owners who host the console tool on their websites. You can try it out here: https://susam.net/wander/ It is a small, decentralised, self-hosted web console that lets visitors to your website explore interesting websites and pages recommended by a community of independent personal website owners. It is a bit like StumbleU", "context": "", "use_case": "Discover personal websites", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What did your 'Show HN' project turn into?"}, {"id": 762297408, "item_id": 47643588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47643588", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-04-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "worth checking out", "excerpt": "Great to see another IndieWeb project on the HN front page. The more the merrier. At this point, it almost feels like we need a meta-directory to keep track of them all. For others like me who are fond of these projects, here are a few other directories and indices worth checking out: https://blogroll.org/ https://blogs.hn/ (by @surprisetalk) https://codeberg.org/susam/wander/issues/1 (I developed this) https://hnpwd", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Indie Internet Index \u2013 submit your favorite sites"}, {"id": 759672400, "item_id": 47479525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479525", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Done as part of", "excerpt": "@dvh Done as part of <https://codeberg.org/susam/wander/commit/8e901ce>. Thank you for the great suggestion.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 759671536, "item_id": 47479471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479471", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "This was implemented in", "excerpt": "Hello @deanebarker, This was implemented in <https://codeberg.org/susam/wander/commit/f952fe4>. If you visit <https://susam.net/wander/> now, you should see an 'Open' button that opens the recommended website in a new tab. Thank you for the great suggestion!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422759", "title": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427290", "title": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47639291", "title": "The Indie Internet Index \u2013 submit your favorite sites", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427388", "title": "A tiny, decentralised tool to explore the small web", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205320", "title": "Show HN: Swurf \u2013 Swipe through the real web", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49805344", "title": "My weird new hobby: Wandering around Tokyo on Google Maps", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 4}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803438785, "item_id": 50214924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214924", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now that I did it seemed to have grown more!", "excerpt": "Reminds me of the Wander network from Susam Pal (https://www.susam.net). His console is at https://susam.net/wander/ and 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! I like the swiping UI from Swurf though. Being shown just one at a time is calming. I did the same thing for my RSS feed reader... it just randomly pick", "context": "", "use_case": "Random web exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Swurf \u2013 Swipe through the real web"}, {"id": 797407280, "item_id": 49837955, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49837955", "by": "krapp", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "With some lo-fi music it really helps with anxiety.", "excerpt": "I use an app called Wander to do this in my Oculus Quest. With some lo-fi music it really helps with anxiety. It really is fun just picking some random spot on the map, some random neighborhood no tourist would ever think to visit, and poking around. I actually had a hobby of posting \"virtual vacation pictures\" for a while. Not any attempt at a business or going viral or anything, just literally cool things I found a", "context": "", "use_case": "virtual exploration on Oculus Quest", "switched_from": "", "story": "My weird new hobby: Wandering around Tokyo on Google Maps"}, {"id": 780835360, "item_id": 48802210, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802210", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recently added Wander to a website of mine", "excerpt": "I recently added Wander to a website of mine (https://www.heyhomepage.com/wander/). Before that, I became a proud member of the small Tech Makers webring (at the bottom of https://www.theredpanther.org/). Even before that, I just implemented a blogroll (or list of shared links, as I prefer to call it) at https://www.heyhomepage.com/?module=timeline&link=1&view=sharedlist Maybe your blog is also in it!? I manually pic", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "You Need a Webring"}, {"id": 771482864, "item_id": 48217679, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48217679", "by": "antics9", "date": "2026-05-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There\u2019s wander: https://susam.net/wander/", "excerpt": "There\u2019s wander: https://susam.net/wander/", "context": "", "use_case": "Sharing lists of websites", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Declaring War on the Web"}, {"id": 769368080, "item_id": 48085505, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48085505", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like that take on discovery of smaller curated websites", "excerpt": "Don't know where your colors and style come from, but imo you're doing fine on that front. Nice project also! Bookmarked. In the same vein; I stumbled upon Wander (pun intended) by browsing a HN post from yesterday. I really like that take on discovery of smaller curated websites. https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#readme", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An index of indie web/blog indexes"}, {"id": 769265808, "item_id": 48079113, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48079113", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-05-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On each click of the 'Wander' button, the tool picks one console at random", "excerpt": "I'll start with the clarification that the moderators have changed the URL of the original post from <https://susam.net/no-query-strings.html> to <https://chrismorgan.info/no-query-strings>. Hopefully, this will prevent any confusion about why we are discussing random walks in a post about query strings. Now let me answer your question. > Is it not a random walk? Might sound pedantic but if there is graph structure I", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Will Not Add Query Strings to Your URLs"}, {"id": 762328017, "item_id": 47645501, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47645501", "by": "fafre", "date": "2026-04-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "currently only Wander and Kagi Small Web", "excerpt": "I recently built a Small Web Discovery feature for the WebLibre Android browser that unifies multiple sources (currently only Wander and Kagi Small Web). The feature is still very alpha, in the upcoming weeks I will look into adding more sources. Documentation here: https://docs.weblibre.eu/weblibre/small-web.html and there are some screenshots in this Wander issue: https://codeberg.org/susam/wander/issues/11", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Indie Internet Index \u2013 submit your favorite sites"}, {"id": 762214544, "item_id": 47638409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47638409", "by": "carte_blanche", "date": "2026-04-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A great execution on the problem of discovery within the blogosphere is Wander", "excerpt": "Looks nice! It's getting hard to keep up with all the recent posts on indie web aggregators (a good problem to have!). I've observed that I always get excited about seeing one such tool -> try to make it a habit to visit those aggregators occasionally -> forget about them -> rinse and repeat. A great execution on the problem of discovery within the blogosphere is Wander, which was posted here a few days ago - https:/", "context": "", "use_case": "Discovering personal blogs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I built a frontpage for personal blogs"}, {"id": 759670816, "item_id": 47479426, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479426", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "every Wander Console supports customising the appearance of the console", "excerpt": "To add to this fine suggestion, I'd like to highlight that every Wander Console supports customising the appearance of the console. The section https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#customise-your-console describes how someone setting their own /wander URL can customise how their console looks and behaves. I have seen a few consoles already using this feature to change their theme. So while I will keep my console as it i", "context": "", "use_case": "Exploring the small web", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 759017744, "item_id": 47438609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47438609", "by": "daigoro", "date": "2026-03-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes.", "excerpt": "This is delightful! I found a bunch of interesting sites in just a few minutes. I appreciate your simple and decentralized approach. I'm going to set this up on my website as a replacement for my boring blogroll list. Incidentally, I made something similar (also called Wander!) that uses browser bookmarks as a source of links. It's a browser extension called \"Wander your bookmarks\" and helps you wander through sites ", "context": "", "use_case": "Random small-web exploration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 758946128, "item_id": 47434133, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47434133", "by": "collabs", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love the idea.", "excerpt": "I love the idea. One small thing - Ran into a problem almost immediately -- Nightly Can\u2019t Open This Page To protect your security, drkhsh.at will not allow Nightly to display the page if another site has embedded it. To see this page, you need to open it in a new window.", "context": "", "use_case": "exploring the small web", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 758934608, "item_id": 47433413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433413", "by": "montenegrohugo", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Really neat. Immediately added to my own small blog", "excerpt": "Really neat. Immediately added to my own small blog: https://hugo0.com/wander", "context": "", "use_case": "Exploring the small web", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 758904544, "item_id": 47431534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47431534", "by": "moralestapia", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just to clarify, I like Wander.", "excerpt": "Just to clarify, I like Wander. I'd really like to see something fill in the void left by StumbleUpon. I used to spend hoooooooours wandering there.", "context": "", "use_case": "Explore the small web", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}, {"id": 758869664, "item_id": 47429354, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47429354", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "There is no need to re-download https://codeberg.org/susam/wander every few weeks.", "excerpt": "I am not sure I have understood your question accurately, but let me attempt a response anyway. If I get it wrong, please feel free to ask me again. There is no need to re-download https://codeberg.org/susam/wander every few weeks. The setup is a one-time step. From that repository, you copy exactly two files (index.html and wander.js) and place them on your web server, preferably within a /wander/ directory. After t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A tiny, decentralised tool to explore the small web"}, {"id": 758850992, "item_id": 47428187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47428187", "by": "susam", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The tool is capable of discovering neighbouring consoles and showing URLs from there.", "excerpt": "17 + the 11 URLs from https://dahlstrand.net/wander/wander.js which I link to from above. The number of URLs grow as more people add this tool to their website and add each other as neighbours. The tool is capable of discovering neighbouring consoles and showing URLs from there.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wander \u2013 A tiny, decentralised tool (just 2 files) to explore the small web"}]}