Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#41

Post by systemizer » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 12:31 PM UTC

civilian wrote: post #23

systemizer wrote: post #18

I wouldn't call this a next generation browser. What I'd like to see is a browser that eliminates the url bar. I don't know how that would be done and you'd probably lose functionality along the way, but from a UX standpoint, it sounds awesome. I would like to browse the internet with only a touch screen; maybe integrate the zoom-in touchpad movement with link previews. Anyone?

What?! I'm so against this-- I think that my first understanding of the internet really came from looking at url structures as I surfed. It made me realize where I could explore, what subsections I could change to get different results. Sure, it's meaningless to the general populace, but it's still a good feature. Additionally, if there wasn't a url bar then it might be harder to detect phishing.

You're thinking in way too much detail here. What I proposed is such an abstract idea to interact with the internet, and you're talking about phishing attacks.

Don't be so critical about crazy ideas; people who invent are only successful if they think outside the box and don't carry much concern for the constraints that currently exist in present day systems (like phising, url structures.... forget about that)

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#42

Post by ashraful » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 12:39 PM UTC

chubs wrote: post #34

To make a break from all the (constructive) criticism here: Good on you! The world needs another open source browser to compete with firefox. It'd be awesome if you completed one. I know its a daunting task, but hey imagine if you finished it. I like people who think big like this! And, hey, if you only got half way, at least try to structure your code so it'd be useful in other projects eg chrome, firefox. You never…

Thanks a lot. I really hope to be able to complete this project, although I'll need a lot of help. I will post some more details explaining the entire concept to get more people interested in the project and perhaps contributing to it.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#43

Post by onli » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 1:07 PM UTC

ashraful wrote: post #21

systemizer wrote: post #18

I wouldn't call this a next generation browser. What I'd like to see is a browser that eliminates the url bar. I don't know how that would be done and you'd probably lose functionality along the way, but from a UX standpoint, it sounds awesome. I would like to browse the internet with only a touch screen; maybe integrate the zoom-in touchpad movement with link previews. Anyone?

Removing the URL bar entirely is not possible now, since typing in URLs is still fairly common. De-emphasizing it (like I do in Browsr) is a step towards what you are talking about.

But why exactly are you doing that? I fail to see how a de-emphasizing of the url-bar helps. Especially from an UX-point of view.

I see only one advantage:

* less screenspace used

But some drawbacks:

* The primary way of navigation is not seeable on start of the thought to go somewhere else anymore (note: maybe not the most common way to go somewhere, given the bookmarks on the startpage and people using only google, but still the primary way when you want to go anywhere now and you understand urls)

* Relying on people understanding tabs

* Introduction of a hidden feature and usage of an already used interaction (double-click on tab)

It seems you want to enforce the opening of a tab when you go somewhere, especially since you have no dedicated and always seeable search-field. And your answer to the comment above implies you maybe want to think about a different navigation concept. Which all is fine in some part, opening tabs when going somewhere fits to my usage-pattern.

But i think that this development (as other browser-vendors try to hide the url too) is aimed at a specific class of users (google-only-users + bookmark-only-users + power-users reconfiguring their browser like they want), letting many other (e.g. all struggling users who just discovered the url) behind.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#44

Post by perlgeek » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 1:36 PM UTC

ashraful wrote: post #33

agilebyte wrote: post #29

When you say you are building a browser, do you mean you will implement a new way of rendering the documents as well, or are you "simply" slapping a new UI on say webkit?

I'll use webkit.

If you're looking for inspiration code-wise, look at uzbl (see http://uzbl.org/ ) which is basically the simplest browser you can possibly build on top of webkit.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#45

Post by idm » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 3:00 PM UTC

ashraful wrote: post #22

runjake wrote: post #20

I wouldn't call it next-generation. To me, it really resembles what the Flock browser was trying to accomplish.

Flock was more interested in integrating other social networks directly into the browser. Browsr doesn't do that, although native web apps provide a similar convenience. Browsr main objective is to make the browsers that default place to keep user data. Instead of you social connections being on Facebook's server or Google's server, it should be on your PC. Users can let other services access this info (or even store…

> Browsr main objective is to make the browsers that default place to keep user data. Instead of you social connections being on Facebook's server or Google's server, it should be on your PC.

This. You describe browsr as being "like an operating system" in the post, but I think what you've said here is way closer to what you are demonstrating.

Also, I like this concept.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#46

Post by ashraful » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 3:18 PM UTC

More information about my plans here:

http://ashraful.org/browser-features/

While I realize that my entire vision depends on third parties like Facebook and Google giving up their control of the data, I think its inevitable. As open services become better and better, users will move away from closed systems.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#47

Post by wisp558 » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 3:20 PM UTC

Regardless of whether or not this actually qualifies as 'next-gen', I find the current trend of naming things by misspelling words to be somewhat... disturbing. 'Browsr'? Really? I don't want to have all of the technology I use require a [sic] tag. :(

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#48

Post by dlan1000 » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 5:25 PM UTC

Beyond managing your identity/s, the most compelling notion this brings to my mind is that sites should reduce transmission of redundant data: You specify the structure once then only the data is transmitted (what someone else referred to as "like iOS apps"). To an extent we are already moving in this direction with asynchronous update technologies, but rather than a next-gen browser, it seems like we need a next-gen language that places a primary emphasis on reducing wasteful transmission of redundant information. E.g., On iOS I update my FB app when there is a change to its structure and then I do so exactly once; Why am I re-downloading its structure in my browser window multiple times a day?

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#49

Post by chrischen » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 6:41 PM UTC

ashraful wrote: post #19

chrischen wrote: post #17

If you want to be next-gen you've got to integrate web apps into the native system OS, instead of still running them inside a browser that's running as a windowed app within the OS.

What you're talking about is basically an entire OS. I have considered it but its too complex to implement for me. And it might be too big a leap for most users. Maybe once Windows 8 is launched...

No that's not what I'm talking about. The last thing you should do is reinvent the OS. Simply, make web apps run like and behave like native OS apps instead of like web sites.

Re: Show HN: I am building a next-gen browser

#50

Post by Yxven » Sun, Aug 21, 2011, 12:02 AM UTC

This is really cool man.

Would you expand more on what you're planning for local apps?

One trend I see now is the reproduction of GUI toolkits in javascript. I feel like the better way would be to properly sandbox python (or whatever) and leverage the toolkits already available. Do you plan on enabling anything like that?