2 posts tagged “browser”

Google posted a web page earlier this week for downloads of the new Internet Explorer 7 optimized with Google's toolbar and default search engine setting.  Yahoo! has had a similar page up for their Yahoo!-optimized IE7 browser downloads since early November.  What's really interesting is that Google replicated Yahoo!'s page design almost identically including a screenshot of the IE7 browser with the Yahoo! toolbar and Yahoo! icon blurred in the image.  Some in the online community have suggested the page design was a template provided by Microsoft.  But after some investigation, Jeremy Zawodny, a Yahoo! employee, confirmed the design was original and not such a template.

Despite Google's replication of the design, I found Yahoo's version to still be exceedingly more visually aesthetic and offers color-based cues to users to the intended call of action...downloading the browser.  I have worked with both Google and Yahoo! APIs in my web development projects.  It has been my experience and opinion that Yahoo! consistently offers a better visual and interactive experience in their applications.  Google tends to focus on minimalism, which I applaud, but seems to overlook the marketing and usability capabilities of a well-groomed design, particularly when it comes to the use of color.  I may be a bit biased as a creative, but the world is a colorful place.  I often find Google's pages very monochromatic and dull, but highly functional.  Functionality is, of course, the most important aspect of an application but if Yahoo! continues to develop competitive applications with equivalent functionality and better design aesthetics, the mindshare will continue to shift towards those APIs that offer the best of both worlds.

I have tremendous respect for both Google and Yahoo!.  Both are powerful rivals in the search, online applications, developer APIs and community spaces.  However, as a developer and designer, I find the replication of another's work is completely unethical without the approval of the original author's consent.  Google is large enough that it should have the appropriate resources to develop their own page designs and should realize that as the big guy on the block, their pages are under constant scrutiny by the other big players, Yahoo! and Microsoft.  Its also puzzling that an original design was not developed considering the already laggard launch of the Google-optimized browser page since IE7 final release build has been available for well over a month and Yahoo! was prepared at the time of the browser's launch.  Another day or two certainly wouldn't have made much of an impact on downloads, but could have saved some face.

It didn't take Google long to discover the issue when the story hit the blogs and media.  Subsequently, the page was pulled and a new design was posted with a new look-and-feel.  At least, Google was quick to be responsive about addressing the issue but unfortunately the PR damage has already been done.

Additional Resources:

• Jeremy Zawodny's Blog: Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!?
• TechCrunch: Google Copies IE7 Promo Material From Yahoo!
  
• TechCrunch: Google Fixes Yahoo! Copied Splash Page
• Search Engine Watch Blog: Google Copies Yahoo!'s Marketing Page
  

Since I work in web and interactive development as well as have a insatiable passion for everything gadget and geek, I am going to start adding posts on different technologies and products that I think represent innovation, utility and/or style.

So naturally, let's start with the web browser.  I hope that most of you

have heard of Mozilla's Firefox web browser and have stopped using the severely antiquated and unsecure Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and even IE7. If you have used Firefox and also enjoy social networks such as photo sharing; blogging; and bookmarking, then you must check out the Flock -- the social  web browser.  I started using Flock a couple of months ago in a early beta build.  The browser is still in beta  but is quickly approaching a final release.  Any bugs that I have discovered over time have been minimal and quickly addressed in the next available  update.  Flock is built using Mozilla's Firefox browser engine and is currently available for Windows and Mac O/S.  A Linux-based version is expected in the future.  So much of the functionality of Firefox is in this browser and the interface  and  settings options are the same.  Flock is basically a Pro- or Super- version of Firefox adding previously unavailable features to the standard Firefox browser.  Another similar pro-/super- version of Firefox in development is SongBird, which is a combination of a music management system with player integrated into a web browser environment.  Both Flock and SongBird allow for open-source extensions, themes, and plug-ins like Firefox.  Although some extensions must be tweaked to work properly with the browser.  Flock is working on a tool for developers to submit their Firefox extensions that will convert the extension to Flock-safe.  I have found Flock so effective in making me more productive and expanding my internet social life that it is now my primary browser.  So without further ado...let's get into the features.

One of the most useful features that I enjoy about Flock is its ability to integrate search with two different tag-based social bookmarking sites.  For this feature, you can use the ultra-popular, Yahoo!-owned Delicious or my favorite for favorites, Shadows.  Both sites have similar functionality and there are dozens of social bookmarking sites available but only these two are currently integrated with Flock.  When you first install Flock, you will complete a few screens providing the settings for your social bookmarking account.  After completing this step, you can add and remove URLs to your social bookmarks in a single-click with in the Flock browser.  If you visit a page that is bookmarked in your browser's "Favorites" or in your social bookmarking account, the large star next to the address bar will change from blue to orange.  In addition, you can also assign tags for each URL and specify the accessibility of the site on your account.  To make social bookmarking really useful, you can enter a keyword or tag into the search box and a list of sites in your history and social bookmarks will display in the drop-down menu.  You can either select one of those sites or submit to the selected search engine.

Another feature of the Flock browser is integration with social photo sharing sites.  You can integrate with either Flickr or PhotoBucket.  After supplying your account information for your preferred photo sharing site, you can click a photo icon on the menu and a shelf will scroll in on the top of the browser and photostream your pictures.  You can click a photo to go directly to its web page.  In addition, you can drag-and-drop images to your account from a web page or drag-and-drop images from the shelf to a web page or another application.

If you blog, Flock allows integration with blogging services from Blogger, Drupal, LiveJournal, MoveableType, Typepad and WordPress.  From the browser, you can click the blog icon on the menu bar and a posting form will open to make a new blog entry without ever visiting the site or leaving your current page.  You can also highlight text in a web page that you would like to blog about and right-click "Blog This".  The blog entry form will open and the text will be copied to include in your submission with a trackback link.

You can also highlight and copy text or images on a web page and drag to the bottom web snippets shelf.  Any objects that you drag here can be stored for future usage.  When you need to use a web snippet, just drag it from the shelf and place in the form or application.

On last feature that should not be overlooked is Flock's RSS feed aggregation feature.  On any site where a RSS feed

is available, you will find a RSS Icon in the browser's address bar.  By clicking on the icon, the browser will open the feed in its RSS aggregator (which is very nice and comparable to RSS stand-alone applications.  In this screen, you have the option to subscribe to the feed.  The aggregator will update the feed on each intial run of the browser and then every ten minutes thereafter.  When new feeds become available, an organge dot will appear on the News icon on the menu bar.  Click the News icon to view your feeds.  In the feed reader, you can mark different threads to save or mark as "viewed".

With all the premium features available in the free Flock browser, its hard to even consider another browser.  Flock on!