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What Will the Browser Look Like In Five Years?
macslocum writes "Opera's Charles McCathieNevile examines the most significant web browser innovations of the last few years, and he looks ahead to the browser's near-term future."
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I hope it will have migrated off the desktop, off the smartphone, and onto some contact lenses.
*sigh* am I thinking a little too distant?
It'll be so dumbed down that everything we love about it will be dead and it'll be just another appliance for Joe Sixpack. Don't you love average users?
It will look like IE 10
I'm guessing it will look like a window with a tab bar and 1-2 text boxes to enter in urls and search terms, with navigation buttons nearby.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
With the shit to more interactions with computer hardware, graphics card acceleration, offloading processing of certain code to the CPU I see this trend continuing but what impact is this going to have on system security. As more hooks go from the web into our computer hardware aren't we exposing ourselves to more and more risk?
We're taking advice from a company that gives its product away, and (despite amusing claims to the contrary) is still living on the proceeds of a huge IPO that was based on... giving its product away.
Personally I'd rather ask someone who's in the browser business, not an imminent footnote.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
The browser will still appear in the same window, but the corners will be cut off.
It will be yet another boon to porn. two hands baby! And 3D - woohoo!
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
http://apirocks.com/html5/html5.html#slide1
Three things I see happening now are 1) Displays getting bigger and bigger. 2) 3-D everywhere 3) Application integration with normal TV's. I think the next big thing in browsing will be developed for the TV user, like a widget for a web enabled Sony TV or something. I could see semething in the more distant future integrating the 3-d effect with touch/motion detection.
You're thinking too small. We already have prototype brain-chips that interface with computers. The browser will be entirely created by optic-nerve stimulation! No interface elements- you just think "save", and it will be deposited in your storage augmentation. Or you try to remember what the url is at the moment, and all of a sudden you know. Hope with me here!
Hopefully it wont look like anything. Eventually I want a browser that I don't even see yet can do everything it does currently and more with an input device that combines everything I need for the new (more interactive) internet. *sigh... I can dream.
http://wwww.zerospeaks.com
Yes, opposed to Firefox, IE, Chrome, and pretty much any other browser out there, which you have to pay for. Oh, wait....
When will browsers go away? Will they be replaced by something else?
They will become the next layer, where we use our applications / games.
Hopefully the current OS-es will become irrelevant and we will fight over who is better: Firefox, Chrome or IE.
Firefox will be for geeks, who likes to customize their stuff.
Chrome will be the fastest and secure out of the box.
IE / Safari the one with the most aggressive marketing.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I'm worried that it will simply display the MOTD about being a good citizen, reminding us not to violate copyright and then pointing us to our assigned task for the day. Oh and it will have ads for entertainment content, mountain dew and viagra. Mandatory ads that is (as in no need to click here, we will simply deduct it from your account, thanks).
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
Let's ask the makers of OS/2!
Let's ask the HURD team!
people will boot netbook-iphone hybrids directly into the browser
javascript will be the new c++. yes, that's a somewhat horrifying thought: the future of UI development will be javascript, gulp
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
but that guy's family name looks like a CamelCasedClassName ;)
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
browsers because there will be no internet.
It will look like flying through buildings made of data.
YES, YES IT WILL!
NaNanananananana I can't hear you nanananananaana
Except slower, filtered, monitored, pay-walled and with a different set of security flaws.
IE will never conform to web standards, not that it matters as the standards will be utterly broken anyway.
HTML will never be perfected with separation of concerns, instead every new standard will be a rush to pollute the language with a new wiz-bang feature and shoe-horned into the wrong markup paradigm. If a major browser is utterly broken, its method of being broken will be incorporated into the standard and developers will have to work around its bullshit failure.
Isn't this browser-based nonsense what got MS in so much trouble? I wonder if they'll get a refund from the anti-trust folks... FWIW DLM
For some of us, based on our needs this prediction is not too difficult to make Google Chrome inside of Google OS seriously, don't laugh.
Well, if certain media groups get there way, and the government decides the Internet needs regulating cause it's serious business, 'links' will probably look just as good as it does now.
Do we really need punch the monkey, facebook match-up, and viagra reminders in 5 years?
Ah, ad hominem. Why bother trying to actually find fault in the argument when you can find fault in the man making the argument?
And moderators seem to agree! Oy.
It will have no buttons or any other form of input, it'll be a window to Steve Jobs browsing the internet. This is Apple's quality control in action, you'll never see any crap sites anymore.
I still don't know what he looks like this year! Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn't out until the end of next month... :(
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
I have a feeling that the browser of the future is going to look like the browser of the present, just without the IE logo. Third-party browsers like FF and Chrome are rapidly gaining market-share and, for the most part, provide a superior browsing experience.
-Will P.
that it will have a lot more shiny gradient colour/'marble' effects and require three times as much RAM to do the same things that we do at the moment.
The one on your computer, your tablet, your phone, or your tv?
+5 insightful for that? Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a technical discussion board, not 3rd grade recess.
Just goes to show how far the average age of the slashdot reader has dropped over the past 10 years. I mean, as soon as I read that comment, the first thing that crossed my mind was "15-year-old".
Firefox from 2015, with the most common add-ons installed, will look like opera from 2014.
it will all be in your TV. as will ordering pizzas... were already almost there... isn't there a television with youtube?
This needs more cowbell!!!
and your unwritten analogy is that javascript is the machine language of the internet
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
At one time browsers were supposed to the universal interface for most data-delivery internet applications. Yet they are being bypassed for custom applications written for mobile devices. I guess mainly because they dont utilize screen real-estate very well, a precious resource on mobile devices. They have too much decoration on the edges, unpredictable screen placement, lack of touch-interface gui's etc.
My prediction is they will be scripted, browser environment for the mobile device, which would provide a app-like feel.
Given that more and more functionality is moving to the browser, my answer is: Emacs.
Firefox and Safari and Chrome seem to be meeting in the middle in a basic design with one entry field and very few buttons. Whether tabs are on the bottom or top, people want a streamlined experience.
As for the rest, well I remember in 1996 when people were suggested VRML and 3D web was the next big thing. I imagine the web is largely going to look the same in 5 years except for ads. Pop-ups, pop-unders, peel-away ads and such will be joined by even more annoying ads of the future. Thankfully I block all of them.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Every single word will generate a popup or link to some ad or other non sequiter .
Well, Opera historically has been quite revealing in regards to what will become of most browsers few years down the line... ;p
Also, their financials are open / those are not any tricks; it's not that hard to find countries where Opera has great or even dominating position (interestingly, it's mostly ex Soviet Block); and...depending on how you count they are #1 mobile web browser. #2 if you throw all Webkit-based together.
One that hath name thou can not otter
I expect browsers to become ISP-sanctioned locked and DRM'd software with the set limit of advertisement-free browsing time.
Oh, let me see, I predict that 5 years from now, browsers are going to be about the freaking same. Perhaps, as usual, with a few more useless bells and whistles nobody really needs but some PHB though would be cool.
Why? Well, a browser is an application that retrieves web documents, renders them on your screen, and enables you to navigate through them using hyper links. Nothing more, nothing less. It won't make your toast and it won't replace your operating system. People may try things like that but then it's not just a browser any more, and it is usually a bad idea.
The basic functionality of a browser really hasn't changed much since Tim Berners-Lee released his "World Wide Web" browser in 1991. Feel free to try and come up with something new that meets the needs of the world better. I dare say there is room for improvement, but I just don't that kind of innovation happening much any more - people just keep trying to shoehorn "applications" in to something that is only meant to render documents and keep scratching their head as to why that doesn't work very well.
More shine.
More useless features that the browser makers will make you THINK that you need by forcing it on you.
More memory load.
More security holes.
A button that makes your browser window bounce up and down.
Noises on all actions to the beat of some rap / fifth-teeny pop twat song.
Am i close yet?
hover browsers I was promised?
Unless you're of the opinion that M$ are suddenly going to stop stealing all the best features and ideas (in exactly the same way as they always have for the past twenty years), or that all the Corps are suddenly going to invest in devs to port their apps off of IE...
In 5 years, we will finally see the death of mainstream support for IE6 in the corporate environments. Sadly, IE 7 and 8 will still be around dragging us back into the past. And, web developers who thought IE 9 and 10 would actually correctly support standards will look back and shake their heads at their naiveté.
Opera will still be goofy enough to not be mainstream for most people.
Firefox will finally have sandboxed tabs, not just sandboxed plugins (though it will only be in beta in 5 years).
Chrome will have gained sentience.
Safari won't be anywhere anymore, as Satan got impatient waiting for Jobs to join him in Hell, and simply reached out and dragged him and the entire company down into the fiery pit for one giant, everlasting technological lock-in orgy of evil.
Oh, and the HURD will finally be released - as an extension to Emacs.
"Whatever it looks like, Opera users will whine that their browser looked like that first." - by eln (21727) writes: on Tuesday April 20, @10:48AM (#31910144) Homepage
See subject-line above: That's about all Opera users really "whine" about, but those are the facts, so... "read 'em & weep".
Hopefully they'll have better desktop-like-GUI/CRUD support:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1622780&cid=31890610
Table-ized A.I.
In 5 years, it will be integrated into my flying car. Whose taillights will be lasers, mounted on sharks of course.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I'm more worried that your cock has a hinge, because that means that robots are posting on slashdot and for all I know I am the ONLY real person doing so which would mean that I am living in a fake world created for me by robots. I must be Keanu Reeves.
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
Todays browser sucks when it comes to reading compared to the Mosaic clone I used 15 years ago.
I hope that the browser will split into two application, one made for reading and one for all that fancy web-application stuff that makes the browsers of today useless for reading purposes.
My wish-list
Text is the best bearer for most kinds of information, why are we making internet useless for text.
Here's the worst case.
Web browsers are still around, but they're used only to look at junk sites. All commercial content is locked into "applications" for phones, tablets, and TVs. The content provider has complete control - the user can't skip ads, can't prevent the content owner from knowing what they're looking at, and can't save the content.
Bots run by the MPAA, the RIAA, News Corp., Apple, and Google constantly troll the remnants of the free web, searching for commercial content and sending out goon squads to take it down.
So Internet Explorer is the way of the future, because you have to pay for Windows to get it?
a 3D array of tabs. That, and a feature that switches tabs a split second before another person is within view of your screen.
what it already looks like: shitty web pages.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
If we already know what the browser's going to look like in five years, why not just release it next year? Do we have to wait 5 years to make the futurists' predictions accurate?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Eh, hit a little too close to home there for someone? Sheesh, it was a joke, moderator.
See, everyone on here assumes that porn is the driving force behind most technology changes. it's a frigging slashdot tradition.
Ah well, maybe I'd have gotten a better mod if I'd have said goatse or a vagina or something.
Sent from your iPad.
I don't know what the browser will look like in 5 years, but I do know that in 5 years when you press an arrow key to scroll it will definitely do something unexpected--it will NOT scroll.
Metal!
Anon: "I am hoping about the same, but with a more personal-intuitive-interactive cyber-browsing option."
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Hey apk! Tell us about your crack legal team.
I'm coing to take a pee now
As different as they look now from 5 years ago (ie. not much)
Maybe he’ll tell you about his Kings Joker sock-puppet that he uses to toot his own horn at ThePlanet’s forums. He’s always referring to “Kings Joker, user of my guide @ THE PLANET”... apparently it’s some impressive feat to have one person to quote, who is actually yourself, anytime you need to boast about how useful your tech advice is.
Why don’t you explain to me what you mean via a nice car analogy?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Haha, I have never heard of ThePlanet, but it's good to know that he's still out there posting total craziness. Any links to relevant threads would be most welcome.
Firefox will have offloaded about 75% of its features into plugins, extensions, et cetera. The remaining 25% will be a gigantic giga^H^H^H^Hgibibar, which stores the entire html of every website you've ever visited, and searches through all of them whenever you type anything into it. Loading up google will take two or three minutes due to the extensive use of flash.
Touch was made for the Web. You actually press the buttons, you easily flick to scroll, and pinch to zoom. It is so natural and easy. There's no going back to the mouse once you use touch. This also translates to virtual touch, like Minority Report, to surf on a TV. Direct interaction.
Also, HTML5 (standards-based Web) is more important than ever. More devices, more platforms, more vendors. It is the only way forward. Most devices do not have native apps, they need Web apps. And Web publishing has to get cheaper and easier and more universal as print goes even further away. People need to use basic tools and make universally-accessible Web content.
Finally, ISO MPEG media. Most of the world's published network audio video is in ISO formats. These are the consumer audio video formats. The PC formats are comparitively irrelevant. Cameras and recorders make it, editors edit it, all the consumer devices play it in hardware. All the pro gear is based around the QuickTime container. There's no substitute. The Web will play audio video's formats, not its own format. That's the legacy of the Web doing XHTML instead of audio and video tags in 1999. Audio video came to the Internet via MPEG, not W3C. The royalty-free non-commercial use of ISO media will continue indefinitely. Apple filibustered the original license and got the royalty-free use, and Apple has made it clear it has to continue. Both Apple and Google ave ways to make things bad for MPEG-LA if they try to change that through the last few years of the patent terms, which are not that far away. The thing to understand is the Web will be less text+graphics and much more audio video. TV is going to have its revenge on the Web.
So mouse+IE+Flash is turning into touch+HTML5+MPEG. Much easier, much cheaper, many more platforms, richer media, lots of audio video.
The Matrix was a metaphor. What you're actually living in is a fake world created for us by leftists. Where teapartiers are racists and you can spend your way out of debt and Bush caused hurricane Katrina and tourism is a human right. Just forget that none of it makes sense and go along, it'll be a much easier existence (not to be confused with a life).