What A Browser Should Be

I don’t know, maybe I am asking to much, but I should be able to have the same browser experience at work as I do at home. Why can’t my browser recall what tabs were open at work when I open my browser after returning home?  How about the ability to have auto-complete remember where I have been (history) as I type and address in the address bar? Once I’m at a site that requires me to login, why can’t my browser be ready to autofill that information?

This should be done without “add-ons” or “widgets”. What I went to far? I don’t think so, especially since there are 3 browsers almost there already.

Opera

Opera caught my attention when I was looking for a better browsing experience on my BlackBerry. When I visited Opera’s site, I noticed Opera Mini. Which can be used on the BlackBerry. allowing me to still see the ‘real’ internet on my phone too. Since I would be doing more browsing, via my phone, Opera wanted to be sure I didn’t miss anything. Whatever I found on my phone, I can now sync it from my BlackBerry to my desktop with Opera Link. OOOhhh, I can sync my bookmarks between my phone, desktop, and laptop. One demand met: syncing of bookmarks between machines (My other requirements may follow). Opera is close to giving me what I want.

Pros: Speed                                                                            Cons: Doesn’t render all pages as Firefox or IE

Update: Opera 9.5 is faster yet. User interface has been redone and upgraded. nice. I have been trying 9.5 and I like it, but I have noticed the pages not rendering properly. I don’t know if it is a plug-in or an incompatibility, either way I would recommend it to anyone that want’s to try a different browser.

Flock

Flock wants to be the uber social browser to everyone for eveeryone. Offering you the ability to connect and update ‘all’ your web 2.0 social sites from your browser. Eliminating the need to login at the site. I like Flock, it is Firefox with a bunch of social add-ons. As a Firefox user you know that add-ons help make things easier, but are usually not a complete solution and that is the problem with Flock.

Flock offers you a sidebar, called People, where you can monitor your profiles on: Digg, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Pownce, and Twitter. The setup is easy, login in once, and Flock will remember your information so you can access each profile through the sidebar. Giving you the ability to monitor, modify, or post through the sidebar. Although, modifying and posting is not the best user experiences. Twitter was the most disappointing for me. To post a tweet, which is not obvious where to do this, you fill in a single line space that is missing a character count. Once you click post, the tweet doesn’t fall into the timline. Giving you no frame of reference of where your tweet fits into the conversation. Making replying to @messages impossible to respond to.

I like Flock, but it isn’t what I want. Flock is more of an app than it is a browser.

Pros: Compatible with Firefox add-ons                                        Cons: Can do alot but not one great

Firefox

Firefox 3, faster, and what I am using right now. It lost it’s ONE add-on that gave me the browser I wanted. Google Browser Sync; it remembered what tabs were open when I left work and offered to restore them when I started browsing at home. Google Browser Sync remembered which sites I visited. It even remembers my usernames and passwords. I have been using it for at least a year, but not lately. It has not and will not be updated to be compatible with Firefox 3.

Update: Mozilla is working on taking over where Google Browser Sync left off and it’s called Weave. I have been using Weave. After installing and using for about a day, it decided to not link up. I could not login. If go the labs.mozilla.com write up of Weave you’ll see they are planning a major upgrade that will give you all that Google Browser Sync was.

So why haven’t any of these browsers integrated nay of my suggestions? Am I the only one that wants this? Would it be hard?

What I Think A Browser Should Be

The browser should have a social aspect that also doubles as it’s backup. I see it as a FriendFeed component. The browser pays attention to what you are doing and then logs it to a webpage. This webpage is also the update link to be used by whichever browser you’re in front of. It is also obvious that you can then share your webpage. Choosing wether to share your browsing history, bookmarks, and NEVER your username and passwords. Although there would need to be a component of the webpage that would help you keep all those usernames and passwords straight. Then allow you easy access when browsing.

Maybe this is better served as a feature by FriendFeed,  and accessed by Firefox or Opera.

The Distraction From My Distraction…twitter

I have had a blog for awhile. Not the same blog, but several with varying names and topics. I get super psyched and can’t shut up. Wanting to share my opinion with whomever will listen. I of course then get burnt out and for what? I’m a nobody and then that means nobody is listening. Sure my wife or a cousin will take sympathy on me and click on a post or two, but nothing too meaningful. So I stop posting for awhile. Take this site for example, I haven’t written anything for 2 months. I am burnt out and nobody is listening, so I guess I am on schedule. This time though it is a little different, because there is a popular little service that has grabbed my attention. So much so it is keeping me from wanting to write anything here. Not good. What am I so jacked up about? twitter.

What Is twitter?
The better question, and one twitter helps you answer is: “What are you doing?”. This is the same question I get when people see me staring in to my BlackBerry. That’s how it all got started, my BlackBerry. I thought: “Well now I have this cool new ’smart phone’ I need to do this thing ALL the big tech guys are doing.” Let’s get back to What Is Twitter? It is a mass communication service. A way to update ‘friends’ (followers) with a short message, containing a maximum of 140 characters, of What are you doing? I usually still get a confused look, because everyone says “Why don’t I just call you?” I always respond with, “Am I the only one you want to tell?” So I give them an example: I have decided to get a beer after work. I could call my six usual partners in crime, but I don’t want to do that because it usually turns into a 15 minute conversation. I am either trying to convince someone to join me or listening to some ellaborate lie of why they can’t come (because they won’t admit their wife won’t let them). The alternative, send out a tweet. That way your friends using twitter will see the invite and so will those ‘following’. So now there is an oppurtunity to get together with your good friends or become friends with a follower you have never met. If I still get a confused look…Well it’s pointless and I tell them to just try it.

How I Use Twitter (Tech)
After I started using twitter I found out I didn’t need a ’smart
phone’ at all. I could have been using gtalk or twhirl without a phone.

1. When I am in front of a computer:
a. I use twhirl. A very user friendly app that polls your twitter page for updates. It shows you those updates the same way your twitter page does, with a picture of the friend you’re following and what they said. twhirl allows you to DM (direct message) that person by floating over their picture and clicking the @sign. You can also post new updates from within twhirl. twhirl also offers a convience, that you don’t notice until after using gtalk, of adding shortened links easily.
b. I use gtalk. I will use gtalk at my computer when twitter is ‘funky’ (funky means slow or spotty updates) When twitter is ‘funky’ it usually means that your twitter homepage isn’t recieving updates. When that is happening twhirltwitter homepage. Where as gtalk is a direct line message like the experience of using SMS Text. gtalk is everywhere. If you use gmail, gtalk is there as apart of contacts. If you are browsing, use the gtalk gadget. Simply put, gtalk is better than twhirl. It is faster and can be used without downloading additional apps.

2. When I am mobile:
a. I use mobile gtalk on my BlackBerry. This works the same as gtalk on my computer, but I avoid having to use SMS Text messages. I only suggest doing this as long as you have an Unlimited Data Plan with your mobile carrier.

This in no way is a diffinitive post on What twitter is, nor is it even a How To Setup twitter. It is however the best way to explain what it is to me. That leads me to…

What I believe twitter is going to be: (Predictions)
1. I see twitter as taking the place of most email communication.
2. twitter will be what it is today, however there will be corporate versions and service versions (Verizon, Sprint, At&t). Corporate versions of course will work, not as fun, but will work. The services versions however will not because they will make them closed networks.

My wishes or requests that will make twitter better:
Develop into a TRUE centralized communication portal for everything me. Acquire Plaxo and Linked-in. Facebook tricked me into believing they wanted to be this. Instead Facebook wants to be an advertising company. However, that could be what twitter wants to be, or could be tempted to become.

Rockin The BBerry

Last week I was given a BlackBerry for work. Not because my job is so demanding, but because he couldn’t figure the thing out…well, not patient enough.

BlackBerry is a great tool but you have to jump in all the way. It isn’t a great phone, nor a great web browser. So having a couple few all-right app’s make the whole kickass.

The alternative, the all great iPhone. Won’t buy one because of the commitment to a shitty contract.

There will soon be another alternative on any phone. The hardware will not temp me. The OS of the phone will. I’m talking about Googles Android. Brilliant. Why commit to developing a truly stylistic phone. Instead make a dead simple OS that can go on any phone. A higher chance of complete industry dominance with the lowest overhead.

Realizing the previous you can understand it’s non-alliance for the analog signal recently auctioned by the FCC. Google may not of won, ‘total control’, but it insured future development (Android) will be allowed on/wherever. The accomplished this by appealing to the FCC to keep the signal open source. Open means any software allowed on any hardware of any courier.

So mobile phones, have the phone thing down. iPhone has the user experience and the web browsing. Android will bring the iPhone experience to any phone. Apple logo or not. Face it, the cheapest computer to browse the web and check email is your phone. When that happens ‘A computer for every child’  will be achievable.

Reminder: This post was done on a BlackBerry and using WPhone for WordPress. Can’t insert links… Damn it.

Update: edited, not see on the BBerry.

SXSW: Tlk’g Behnd Some1’s Bck 2.0

SXSW started out with a… bad interview of, Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook, by Stacey Lacy of Business Week. It seemed everyone was upset by the softball questions. So much so the crowd began to turn. Not a riot, not overly loud, but a ‘new’ quite. The ‘new’ quite…Twitter. Twitter is ‘Talking Behind Someones Back 2.0′. Watch the video of the interview, I did, and you’ll see the expectations of the crowd dwindling. [found via Tech Crunch]

The interview was a ‘train wreck’ from the beginning. Sarah Lacy was picked to do the interview because of her history with Mark. Sarah wrote a book about Web 2.0 featuring Mark. Which required a lot of research and interaction with Mark. Sarah elludes to this, and the crowd picks up on it. Did you notice her body language? [Hat Tip: Robert Scoble on TWiT 135]

Twisting her hair while she is asking Mark a question.
The way she sits in her chair
The playful banter about his age and wealth

This history killed the interview. They both took it for granted.

Sarah is not completely to blame. Mark is not the best public speaker. It is obvious that he is not comfortable in this type of setting. Which is odd. Mark is the CEO. A good CEO has to be a pundit for their products.

The crowd does factor in. Not as completely as Micheal Arrington believes. Criticism hurts. Sarah played into the crowds hands by reacting to their criticism. So much so she hands control over by allowing them to ask questions…

…Mr. Zuckerberg, besides ‘rough’ interviews, what is the biggest obstacles Facebook faces?…

Sarah takes it personally, reacting, giving it momentum. Her professional mistake was letting it become personal.

Twitter was the ‘Big App’ last year at SXSW. Well, it is again this year. Twitter is going to change the conversation for the better and worse. Better, if you use Twitter. Worse, if you don’t use Twitter or know everyone talking shit.

Note: How awesome is that viddler?

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