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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'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.
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.
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.
I'm afraid it's too late to worry. I'm just waiting for the day when the MOTD you're worried about is preceeded by scrolling dmesg output and a login prompt. ;-)
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.
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.
You joke, but I do think that the real difference will be how and where we use the browser. As smartphones and other mobile devices become more prevalent, the browser will be used less on the desktop and more on the couch, in the car, etc.
Some people don't like the idea that the iPad (for example) is locked down as much as it is. But that may be a blessing in disguise. If a huge chunk of web clients are locked-down devices that can only run one browser, web developers will find it harder to say that a specific browser is required. They'll have to distribute content in ways that work on all devices, rather than just pop up an alert telling the user to install XYZ Browser instead.*
* Fine, based on the way things are going they may just be able to say a WebKit-based browser is required.
Yes, I think that there would be a problem with contacts as moving your eyes would move the contacts along with them, so you really couldn't look at a different parts of the contact. You could only see the part that was currently in front of your pupil (and even then, there would be focusing issues). But glasses would work. I work for a company that creates little monacle screens for the military that work quite well actually. They use a series of lenses to make the screen appear farther than it is, which makes it much easier to read.
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
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.