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

Let me just say,

[Anonymous Coward]

Marc Andreesen is a bloody idiot. Excuse me while I go read the article now.

He probably hasn't used Opera lately

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera 7 seems pretty innovative to me.

Re:He can't pass them on

[Safety Cap]

what have you done lately?

<rant level="crazy" alt="pit of dispair">

Well, fool, I did some work with writing a bunch of demo apps for Quarterdeck, QCd QEMM and DV/X, worked with the PNG in Symantec, etc., etc., but all that doesn't mean CRAP now, because that technology is dead old, just like Mosaic. There were some grand old ideas for DV/X, but they don't mean much more than a pinch-o-Owlscat now, huh?

Oh, but he's the `god of http,' so if he says that he had some grand idea for browsers (which, as the other AC pointed out, he didn't invent by himself in a vacuum), then he must be dah bomb! Never mind the other poor schlubs who actually wrote the code, improved it, and continue to improve it today, not some old washed up has-been with stories about ``the good old days of 1995.''

</rant>

Re:Funny how innovation stopped right then

[smallpaul]

Marc's a nice guy because he isn't mean to you when you see him at Hobee's or he's a nice guy because saying he's a nice guy allows you to name drop? ;)

Re:Internet

[Master of Transhuman]

Yeah, and all those things are in Opera, too.

Oops, last night I browsed to a crack site (that's software cracks, not the other kind) which proceeded to load and apparently sent some JavaScript or something which INSTANTLY crashed Opera (V7.11) AND Windows Explorer AND took down the whole damn machine (Windows/98, no fuckin' surprise...)

I think browser "innovation" died when some moron came up with scripting languages that by definition cannot be supported properly by ANY browser because 1) they keep changing faster than the browsers; and 2) nobody can use them properly because they are programming languages, not markup code (and poor markup code was enough of a problem, but at least that just made the page look funny).

In my opinion, JavaScript (and Java applets intended to run as part of a Web site - as opposed to actual Java programs) are DEATH to the Internet and should be banned...

You want dynamic pages? Have the browser call a C++ or Java program binary directly and screw all this other crap...JavaScript, Java applets, Flash,
Perl scripts, Jesus, what a nightmare...

As William Burroughs might say, "Get some standards in here and clean out all this garbage!"