[VWWHFSfQ]

> Why does every web site default to aggressively paginate their information?

Because data retrieval costs money and resources. Unbounded API responses are a susceptible to denial-of-service. Well-architected APIs will always cap the number of results they return per-call.

[andy800]

Nothing needs to be "unbounded." Set the cap at 100 or 200 records instead of 10-20. Better yet, plenty of results can be cached. A custom search might require a database query, but Newegg's initial listing of MicroSD cards, graphics cards, hard drives, etc, -- queries that are fulfilled identically hundreds of times per day -- can be cached.

[pwinnski]

At which point you're not actually arguing against pagination, you're suggesting a higher page size.

I agree, page sizes are usually far too short by default! Especially when I'm on a desktop computer and a fiber connection. I think people using phones and cellular connections probably appreciate short page sizes, so it would be nice if sites had different page sizes for different clients.

[friendzis]

Do you perhaps conflate API level pagination with display pagination?