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!"

Comments

Do we need innovation? Everywhere?

[imsabbel]

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.