Why I rebuilt this site (after 15 years)

For fifteen years, yuvalraz.com pointed at a Blogger blog I last touched in July 2011. The final post was about a romantic weekend in the Golan. The one before it bragged — and I quote my younger self — about hitting “PageRank 7 FTW.”

The HTTPS certificate had long since given up. Every modern browser greeted visitors with a Not Secure warning before they could read about my weekend plans from over a decade ago. It was, in every sense, an antique.

So I tore it down.

This is the second draft. The premise is simpler than the first: a quiet place to write, and to point people at the things I make. No PageRank theatrics. Just a fast page, readable type, and one accent color doing all the work.

What stays

The original blog had a tagline I still believe in — it was dedicated to “the art of the client-side, usability, accessibility, and good food.” Three of those four are coming with me. (The good food now lives on a different platform, with photos.)

I’ve always thought the craft of the front end is underrated: the discipline of making something feel effortless is most of the job, and almost none of the credit. That thread continues here.

What’s new

What’s changed is me. Twenty years in, I spend less time arguing for the client-side and more time building tools that help me — and the people I love — actually do the things we mean to do. Some of that is for my kids. Some of it is for the specific shape of my own attention. I’ll write about it.

The bar for posting is low on purpose. The 2011 blog died because every post had to be an event. This one won’t make that mistake.

Welcome back.