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The "`" character (I don't know what it is called) is an authentic single key on the keyboard, and should not be used (even if it could be) as a single key to start an app up.
I think what happened is that software went online. Desktop apps are really going the way of the dodo.
Desktop browsers have largely followed this overall trend of slipping into the background. Every new release sees them simplifying their interfaces and removing features that their data collection tools indicate are only used by a small handful. RSS icons disappear, toolbars get hidden away, the URL bar will likely disappear soon for many...
There is, however, still that five percent that actually did use the RSS icon, liked their status bar, and will most likely abandon any browser that hides away the address bar. The power users may be the minority, but they still exist. Exactly what constitutes a power user is up for debate, but looking at the recent history of Web browser "advances" one thing seems clear, the power user is not the target audience. The person who wants to be in control of their experience and customize it to their liking has been left behind by most browsers.
The power user's current solution to the simplification, arguably the infantilization, of the Web browser interface is to get all those missing features back with add-ons. This works to a degree, but it introduces a ton of extra code, some of it written by programmers far less capable than those contributing to the code of Firefox or Chromium. This inevitably means add-ons slow things down. The problem is bad enough that a future version of Firefox will even have a feature dedicated to letting you know which of your add-ons is slowing you down.
Better late than never, just don't wait another 10 before making another post.
The site is constantly searching for itself in Google, over and over and over, 24 hours a day. The instant it finds itself in Google search results, the site will instantaneously and irrevocably securely delete itself. Visitors can contribute to the public content of the site, these contributions will also be destroyed when the site deletes itself.
Why would you do such a thing? The full explanation is in the content of the site (which is not linked anywhere here).
UPDATE: The experiment lasted 22 days before it was indexed by Google on 24 February 2015 at 21:01:14 and instantaneously destroyed. It was primarily shared via physical means in the real world, word of mouth, etc.
The content for this site is stored in memory only (via Redis) and is loaded in via a file from an encrypted partition on my personal laptop. This partition is then destroyed immediately after launching the site. Redis backups are disabled. The content is flushed from memory once the site detects that it has been indexed.
The URL of the site can be algorithmically generated and is configured via environment variable, so this source code can be made public without disclosing the location of the site to bots.
Visitors can leave comments on the site while it is active. These comments are similarly flushed along with the rest of the content upon index event, making them equally ephemeral.