Cookie banners.
Just visited a US website, from the US, that ships a 457.11kB (minified!) JS bundle of a GDPR "banner SDK" from a "trust" provider. Over 3x the size of React. It ships its very own version of jQuery inside.
Going to the "trust" provider website yields a 5.3s LCP (i.e.: 5s to load the first screen completely). 53% of visitors experience a similarly terrible loading experience. They couldn't care less.
This is the stuff that's silently destroying the web.
• For most users, these providers have gamified beyond belief your ability to actually block cookies. The primary buttons are always "Accept All", even when you "customize your preferences". More often than not, they're cheating you into accepting everything.
• The amount of JS they ship, downloading from a 3rd party website, is destroying the web's performance
• The aesthetics and function of websites is massively compromised. In the spirit of "privacy and trust", they're eroding the open web in favor of proprietary platforms.
• They undermine the product engineering teams' efforts. I've met so many amazing design engineers who spend countless hours honing experiences, only to have them destroyed by cookie junk.
Cookie banner slop has to stop.