Thoughts on Safari (browser)

I just downloaded and installed the Safari 4 browser from Apple and it is, well, ugly! The ugliness is particularly bad on the rendering of its' tabs. The tabs are integrated into the window title bar with clumsy 3-D affects. It also eschews the former brushed aluminum theme for drab beige. I find this particularly disturbing since the software comes from one of the few technology companies that actually pays attention to design.

I was able to mitigate the ugliness a little by hiding the menu, bookmarks, and status bars. However, there's no changing the tabs. At first I rationalized the look in two ways. One, the software is beta so the appearance of the UI may change And two, Apple may be taking digs at Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. On further thought, neither makes sense as Apple should never risk its' reputation for design by releasing ugly software, especially on the most common desktop OS in the world.

That's not to say that Safari isn't a great web browser, it is innovative on a few fronts. First among these is speed, but does the average web surfer notice the speed of their browser? Maybe not, but the speed of Safari allows its' top page and history features to display and scroll pages. This works much like the CoolIris add-in (for IE and Firefox). I've only had Safari for a couple of hours, and I've already found the history search very useful.

The browser wars are heating up again and it's getting interesting. Internet Explorer 8, Chrome, FireFox, and Safari are all great software each with a compelling story. As for me, I use Explorer for all our intranet applications and Chrome as my default browser.

Atlantis found?

CrunchGear posted a blog indicating that Atlantis has been found. Sure, the source is a British tabloid, but apparently the ancient city was found using Google Earth.

While Atlantis is interesting in and of itself, the real story here is the technology. Google has been collecting data on the ocean floors using sonar. Impressive as it is that Google hired drivers to snap pictures of our major cities, it is even more incredible that they have hired boats to gather data about the ocean floor and stitch that data into their maps.

Somebody agrees with my Chrome prediction

When Google introduced its' Chrome browser, I posted a short article on my thoughts (see Thoughts on Google Chrome). One of my conclusions was that the browser which would most feel competitive pressure would by FireFox.

"...If my browsing patterns are common, though, then Firefox will suffer more. In the end, Firefox and Chrome may just duke it out..."

Today I read an article with a similar conclusion. I'm happy that someone out there agrees.

The article, though, overlooks the primary reason why IE will remain the dominate browser; the fact remains that a huge library of browser based applications are not cross-browser (case in point, my team's products). This software is not aimed at the consumer or deployed on the World Wide Web. Instead the applications are deployed on corporate intranets around the world, assuring that IE remains the browser of choice for IT departments.

More web nonsense I don't need but will probably sign-up for anyway

Google has recently announced Latitude. This service allows you to track your friend's location using Google Maps. At first blush, I would categorize this service much like Twitter, as one of the dumbest services on the Web.

I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to Twitter. I use it to update my Facebook status from my cell phone. As yet, though, I don't see how Latitude will provide a similar benefit and I don't think my friends will care about my exact location. Maybe my boss can use it to see how freely I come and go.

Latitude smacks a little like Big Brother. Google is famous for its' don't be evil mantra, but it this type of information will provide a lot of temptation for misuse. Privacy advocates will hate the service. In the end, joining and sharing the information will be voluntary, so I guess users will make their own trouble.

As for me, I'll kick the tires a bit, but you can bet that the service will be turned on my kids phones.

Thoughts on Google Chrome

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine said "everything Google does is excellent". He was showing me Google Maps, which at that time, was revolutionary. Until then, I considered Google another search vendor of Yahoo and Alta Vista ilk. Shortly thereafter I signed up for Google Mail (remember when it was by invitation only), then Google Talk, and later Google Docs.

Although I like Google Docs a lot, using it made me realize that not everything from Google is excellent. And that sums up my opinion about Google's new browser, Chrome. While I like it, and am using it a lot, it's not excellent…yet.

I downloaded and installed Chrome shortly after it was made publicly available this week. Like everything that Google does, the download and installation was fast and automatic. Getting started is easy. Regardless of their claims, Chrome is really just another browser. But true to the Google brand, the browser excels at search. Sure the integrated address and search bar is nice, but IE and firefox let you search from the address bar too. The search feature I really like is the within a page; I like the way Chrome highlights hits on the scrollbar.

Two days is not a lot of time to work with a program, and being a new application in a mature market, Chrome is expected to have flaws. Here some of the issues that I found:

• Sites that perform browser sniffing don't render properly. Hotmail, for instance, only supports its' classic html mode. And our FogBugz issue tracking software refuses to run its' Wiki in Chrome.
  
• Facebook applications behave oddly, in particular I found that links and buttons, such as "Allow" or "Ignore" fail.
  
• Our web applications developed by my teams do not render well, but then they don't render well in FireFox either. We remain a Microsoft shop.
  
• Silverlight applications do not run in Chrome, so Google surfers can't see pictures of my family.
  
• There's no history list, at least not without typing the first few characters of a web site.
  
• There's no button to display a home page; well Ok, there's a setting but it's off by default.
  
• I can't (and maybe it's just me) get back to the frequent-page thumbnails without opening a new tab. I want to make this my home page.
  

I find it interesting that Google chose to enter the browser market. Do we need another browser? It's only been a couple of years since Internet Explorer was the only real player. If Chrome catches on there will be four; IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome (nah, I don't count Opera). Personally, I find myself gravitating to Chrome despite its' flaws and am considering making it my default browser. Although I use Internet Explorer a bit less I find that I never open Firefox anymore (I have Safari for Windows, but really, who uses that?); this after only two days with Chrome.

The competitive target of Chrome is Internet Explorer, and certainly the Chrome comic book takes shots at IE weaknesses. If my browsing patterns are common, though, then Firefox will suffer more. In the end, Firefox and Chrome may just duke it out for the (tiny but vocal) anti-Microsoft crowd. I heard a rumor that Google's entry into the browser space is a precursor to their entry into PDA's with Android. In much the same way that Apple leveraged Safari on the iPhone, Google will leverage Chrome. And on a tiny cell phone screen Chrome's quirkiness will be unimportant. The cell phone angle is intriguing, but Google's open platform approach will produce odd devices and applications that will seem crude when compared to Apple's cohesive offering. If nothing else, Google is making the software industry fun again.