Newsletter #82 The End of the Browser?

Created on 24/10/03

A special hello to all new subscribers. This article is on the Web at this address.

The last newsletter (24th September, 2003) was "Why Design Really Matters".

A Web browser is the program you use to surf the Net with. For around 95% of you this will be Internet Explorer by Microsoft, or IE for short.

The trouble with Web browsers is that they were created to view data, not create or manipulate it. Think about the last time you were looking for Net-based information - it probably involved Google, a large number of disconnected Webpages, interspersed with visits back to Google when you got lost. Am I right?

Of course it doesn't have to be this way.

The term “Web app” has been used to describe programs that work inside a browser window and a great deal of development effort has gone into these types of applications. However, Web apps do have problems:

• Significantly less space is available for the primary application and how this space is used is restricted by the limitations of HTML
• Menus in Web apps use a wide variety of Javascript workarounds or Flash to simulate dropdown menus. These menus have a dismaying variety of behaviors and lack of consistency.
• Browsers normally use cookies to store information across a session. As well as being a little controversial, cookies are an inefficient and slow way of transferring this type of information when you compare it with accessing data via a local storage system.
• Most Web apps require the interface to be downloaded each time and even when the Internet connection is a very quick one there is always appreciable delay or "lag".

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Net-aware desktop applications solve many of the problems associated with Web apps. A user downloads an application that resides on his/her computer - the application then uses the Internet to gather information. Some examples are:

• Specialised applications like weather and stock trackers
• Virus protection software
• RSS (rich site summary) aggregators - see the Power Tip in Newsletter #80 for more information
• The iTunes Music Store - now available to Windows users. It is part of a separate application on your desktop launched like any other, except that it is connected to the Internet. The software is customised to let you checkout the music offerings, listen to and buy songs.

These applications are all specialised and only do one or two things, but they do them much faster and better than a browser does.

New standards such as XML are freeing that information from the way it has traditionally been presented so now any application can collect and manipulate the data. As bandwidth and computing power increase, your computer is becoming a mini server that can crunch and organise data extremely quickly and distribute it to the other devices within your home or business.

Erick Schonfeld of Business2.0 says "In future versions of Word or Excel, clicking on a hyperlink won't cause a Web browser to open; the appropriate data will simply be imported into the application itself. Of course, you will still be able to open a Web browser if you want to. But why would you?"

Your computer has information about you that you would never want to give out to others. For example when you do a search on Google, the site doesn't know very much about you at all - it tries to help you based entirely on the keywords you type into the box. Your computer however, knows who you are, what your interests are and what you've been doing all day.

Net-aware applications could be programmed to download large amounts of data, then number crunch and analyse it according to your requirements, using the power and connectivity of your computer. Usability Expert Jacob Nielsen in this article suggests that "Intelligent e-mail software will eventually play a part in cleaning up information pollution, and less critical information could be shunted to a place you might visit once a day, like intranets with blogs or message boards."

The Web browser won't disappear anytime soon, but may be like Rome, it's had its day.

Alex Garden

Newbies

For previous tips visit the Newbie Hot Tips page.

Power Users

Looking to get away from the Microsoft monopoly and a browser full of bugs and security holes? Why not try out these alternative browsers:

• Mozilla 1.5 or Mozilla Firebird 0.7 or
• Opera 7.21

I use Mozilla and find the tab browsing (a new tab within the same window), and elimination of popup windows great features.

For previous tips visit the Power Hot Tips page.

Goggle is rightly known as the premier search engine on the Web. It also has a great number of features that most of us don't know exist. For example did you know that you could search for images, news headlines throughout the globe, blogs and much more? This site also gives information on how to add your site to Google and optimise it for the search engine. See the Google indicateur at http://google.indicateur.com/index.php3

A couple of ones that'll make you laugh, hopefully. If you've got heaps of time or interested in mindless challenges then check out Hold the Button at http://www.holdthebutton.com/. Warning! If you're a cat lover don't click on this link Cat Carrier - http://www.redcoat.net/pics/ToughLove.jpg.

To search through all the articles in our online database use the search function on any page of our Website.

"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities." Mark Twain.

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive.

If you want to subscribe to this newsletter just visit www.netinsites.com and use the box at the top right.

Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management