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Netscape Founder Says Web Browsing Innovation Dead
mattOzan writes "Marc Andreessen told Reuters today that browser innovation ended five years ago (which would put us at about Navigator 4.5 beta -- what was so innovative about that? The "What's Related" button? Beatnik integration?) "Navigation is an embarrassment. Using bookmarks and back and forth buttons -- we had about eighteen different things we had in mind for the browser." Well, pass me the NDA and tell me what they were!"
When was the last innovation in the way papers are printed? Or books are read?
Or imagine the CEO of a chair factory (with loosing market share) complaing that the whole market is damned because there isnt any innovation and all people do is sit down on their products?
What features does a browser need?
-It has to view webpages
-it has to run your average computer
-it has to be user friendly
only the last thing has seen any innovation at all the last 5+ years. Sure, webbrowsers support new file formats, ect, but this is just maintainance.
And even userfriendlyness has only seen (imho) tabbed browsing and type ahead find.
Of course everybody can imagine some kind of totally new cool super geek way to share information using blabblabla, but the programm to access this wouldn't be a webbrowser anymore, because the web are html pages linking each other with embedded links to media files.
And im quite happy that there hasnt been any bigger innovation, because it is a hint that the programms are mature enough to do their task without NEED for innovation.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
It may not be the best solution, but what about something like this: a 'teach gestures' option; when checked, every time the user did something another way that could be more efficiently done with a gesture, this would display a popup with a diagram of the relevant technique.
Oh dear God. I can imagine it now:
"Hi, I'm clippy. I think you did that mouse gesture wrong. Don't you realize an upside down star with a circle around it goes to microsoft.com? That's where you wanted to go...right?
Right bitch?"
That sounds like a good idea...perhaps it could even take the form of a character. Perhaps a paper clip. Hmmm...but to make it have a little more personality it should have a name. A name, a name, a name...just what could we call it?
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
Oh my fucking god.
Why oh why did I not read the part about NOT CLICKING THE LINK!
ACK!
If you were running Win98, it could have been a /con/con