Oct 26, 2026 · 37 min
Paul Ford turns the URL bar into a computer
Files are over. All you need are URLs
Tiny Little Office tests whether software can be private, shareable, and useful without relying on persistent cloud files.
- 1URLs can carry complete documents, letting browsers render private, shareable software without a conventional server.
- 2Ephemeral documents challenge the assumption that useful work must remain permanently stored in services like Google Drive.
- 3Modern browser capabilities and development tools let small teams build focused software once reserved for large companies.
Don't miss
Paul Ford explains how Tiny Little Office uses URLs, browser capabilities, and encryption to make documents private, shareable, and disposable.
The brief
Paul Ford joins Nilay Patel to discuss Tiny Little Office, a lightweight suite that stores documents and presentations directly in URLs rather than conventional cloud files.
The URL becomes more than an address: fragments, browser-side rendering, and encryption can make a document private, transferable, and disposable when shared.
That architecture raises a basic ownership question: if a document lives inside a link, is it stored anywhere—or only present when someone opens it?
Ford says modern browsers and libraries made Tiny Little Office feasible in roughly ten days, showing how small projects can now challenge software’s old scale economics.
The conversation closes on limits: URLs struggle with images and long documents, but their surprising power makes the browser’s address bar an unexpected home for computing.
Nilay Patel recommends You Can See Everything, a documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about Elizabeth Holmes, following The Verge’s coverage of her trial.
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