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Would you describe today's web browsers as “innovative?”

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Re: Would you describe today's web browsers as “innovative?”

#21
post #13

I think you might get less push-back on whether a browser should aspire to being "innovative" if you draw finer distinctions about types of innovation. There's a big difference between innovative idiomatic APIs, innovating the first support for new specs/standards, innovative performance improvements, innovative UI/X, innovative plugin/extension engines, and (unfortunately) innovative interpretations of specs/standar…

Actually, keeping the response open-ended has been very valuable in understanding how people interpret "innovation" in this context. In the linked survey, there is an open-ended comment box where you can explain your definition.

Certainly; if understanding how people interpret "innovation" is the goal, a broad question is a good way to draw that interpretation out of some subset of 'people'.

I left the survey without answering because I realized it'd require me to make a broad binary generalization of some sort. Questions requiring generalizations like this make me uncomfortable, so I usually avoid answering them or dispute their usefulness. I came here to dispute its usefulness, but I saw a few others had already done so in their own ways, and thought my time might be better spent trying to give you context for this push-back, rather than echoing it.

Perhaps I can unpack how I mean "uncomfortable." If you ask me an innocent question like "what's your favorite movie/book/artist/album?", I have no good prepared answer to give you without vastly more thought than I care to put to the matter. I like a lot of things, but I don't maintain any sort of ranking, and I have no fast+meaningful way of comparing the relative merits of a good comedy with a good documentary, or a book of poems with a novel. I'm aware that most of the time this is just a throwaway question for socializing and I could probably grease the interaction with a little white lie--just pick something and move on. But I also know some people live and die by questions like this, and will mine my answer for what it says about me, whether we'll get along, etc. I could state this as my answer to the question, but the asker is either just making smalltalk and doesn't need a dissertation, or they actually think the question is meaningful and won't appreciate my disdain. The question makes me uncomfortable because it feels like a lose-lose. There's no honest way for me to "answer" it, and all of the other options are undesirable for social reasons.

In your case, I don't know what kind of parameters matter to you, and I lack a fast+meaningful heuristic for weighing whether a browser is innovative on the balance or deciding what definition/qualities of innovation I want to apply. I also realize you have some purpose for asking the question, and that using a cynical heuristic would undermine you.

HTH

Re: Would you describe today's web browsers as “innovative?”

#22
post #6

Where are you going with this? A "browser" is a delivery agent, sort of like the paper and binding in a book. The content of the book can be innovative but who cares if the paper is? Perhaps you are asking "Can you deliver the experience you want to deliver in Today's browsers?" "If not, why not?" which might inform the question of missing features, but such surveys tend to collect dreams rather than requirements ("i…

So your feeling is that the browser is more of an invisible delivery mechanism, and not intended to provide anything other than taking you to your chosen web experience. Is that correct?

Yes, exactly that.

At some point I expect a "browser" to be a piece of fixed hardware that renders the current Markup standards into a combination of screen and audio outputs. Perhaps with the option to 'spool to archival'.

We're going to get there because "innovations" in the browser space have increasingly put our personal information, and financial lives at risk. Nobody ever had to worry that answering the phone might suddenly drain their bank account, or install a surveillance device surreptitiously. And yet we have those issues now with "browsing a web site". As Pwn2Own has shown its a really hard problem to make a secure browser and the logical conclusion (for me at least) is to air gap the browser feature from everything else.

Re: Would you describe today's web browsers as “innovative?”

#23
Thank you to everyone who contributed. There were 205 total responses to the survey.

For "Would you describe today's DESKTOP browsers as 'Innovative'?": Yes = 29% No = 71%

For "Would you describe today's MOBILE browsers as 'Innovative'?": Yes = 14% No = 86%

However, the "No" category includes those who feel that the browser doesn't need to be innovative, and is simply a viewing mechanism.

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