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August 27, 2008
Mozilla Ubiquity...
Everyone’s blogging this (and Twittering and Jaikuing, and…ok, maybe not Jaikuing, but, anyway), but it is really that important.
The web is about to change…
Posted at 10:48 am
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Comments (4):
Hmm. While this has lots of sexy-coolness about it, I’m not sure if this is a landscape-changer. Those of us who "live online" already have shortcuts for most of this stuff; although some tighter integration would be nice, it isn’t earth shatteringly important. The other problem is that this is built in to the browser, and it’s really "in your face".
I would like to see more "quiet" Internet integration in the desktop.
I like what the NITs have with the RTComm beta, with many of my IM (and VoIP) services rolled into a background service that puts me "online" across the board when I connect to the ‘Net, as well as automatically checking my e-mail (although the e-mail client is still fairly unsatisfactory and could be better integrated on the Maemo platform). I’d like to see this extended to include things like Twitter, Skype, Facebook and other such services; I don’t want to have to start various applications to do this.
As for mapping, GMaps in your e-mail are all fine and good, but I think they’re going the wrong way there — I’d like to see tighter Internet integration with apps/devices that can provide GPS and more feature-rich interfaces, so instead of pulling maps into your e-mail, I’d like to pull location info from any application into my map applications (highlight an address or business name in my e-mail or my friend’s IM message and have it show up on my map, with a distance and route from my current location).
RSS feeds are another thing that are terribly under-utilized (and poorly implemented) right now. There’s gotta be a better way to "read the feeds", something that is really in the background and unobtrusive, and yet it lets me see what’s going on. I need to be able to control "noisy" feeds that spew dozens of items a day, so that they don’t swamp the quieter feeds that are equally important, etc…
Anyway, thanks for drawing that to my attention, Tim!
I would like to see more "quiet" Internet integration in the desktop.
I like what the NITs have with the RTComm beta, with many of my IM (and VoIP) services rolled into a background service that puts me "online" across the board when I connect to the ‘Net, as well as automatically checking my e-mail (although the e-mail client is still fairly unsatisfactory and could be better integrated on the Maemo platform). I’d like to see this extended to include things like Twitter, Skype, Facebook and other such services; I don’t want to have to start various applications to do this.
As for mapping, GMaps in your e-mail are all fine and good, but I think they’re going the wrong way there — I’d like to see tighter Internet integration with apps/devices that can provide GPS and more feature-rich interfaces, so instead of pulling maps into your e-mail, I’d like to pull location info from any application into my map applications (highlight an address or business name in my e-mail or my friend’s IM message and have it show up on my map, with a distance and route from my current location).
RSS feeds are another thing that are terribly under-utilized (and poorly implemented) right now. There’s gotta be a better way to "read the feeds", something that is really in the background and unobtrusive, and yet it lets me see what’s going on. I need to be able to control "noisy" feeds that spew dozens of items a day, so that they don’t swamp the quieter feeds that are equally important, etc…
Anyway, thanks for drawing that to my attention, Tim!
Qole (URL) - September 10, 2008 at 12:33 pm
You make a lot of good points, and if we were talking about tighter desktop integration, I’d agree. As for browser usage, though (and I’m afraid we’re stuck with one browser or another for the time being), this brings a lot of cool tools to the forefront. As an example, Ubiquity allows me to allows have my Gmail address book with me — no matter what website I’m on. There are, of course, plenty of other examples, but that’s a good one.
I completely agree that RSS has SO much more potential. A favorite link that I used to point to in the RSS conversation is the essay “Email is Dead, Long Live Email,” by Adam Curry. (I wish I could find a live link to it now!) In it he describes a RSS-centric method of subscribing to email feeds in order to push and retrieve emails from people whom you know. Very compelling.
I completely agree that RSS has SO much more potential. A favorite link that I used to point to in the RSS conversation is the essay “Email is Dead, Long Live Email,” by Adam Curry. (I wish I could find a live link to it now!) In it he describes a RSS-centric method of subscribing to email feeds in order to push and retrieve emails from people whom you know. Very compelling.
timsamoff () (URL) - September 10, 2008 at 12:51 pm
But… I can just have two tabs open in my browser (or two windows, if you prefer that model), one with GMail and one with some other website. Cut-and-paste works pretty well in GMail with most modern browsers, actually. This is what I mean by already having shortcuts for most of these tasks.
I guess I would like to see the time and effort that’s going into Ubiquity going towards the kind of desktop integration I spoke of.
The best thing about browser-based integration (as opposed to desktop-based integration) is that the browser is a much more universal platform. You can drop Ubiquity into any platform that supports your browser. On the other hand, the web is still very much designed for a keyboard-and-monitor interface, which is why there are so many dedicated iPhone / mobile versions of websites. Will there be (a) Ubiquity Mobile version(s)? And if so, why not look at platform-specific solutions that integrate with the desktop instead of the browser?
Sorry if my comments sound agressive or argumentative, that’s not my intention; I’m mostly thinking out loud here…
I guess I would like to see the time and effort that’s going into Ubiquity going towards the kind of desktop integration I spoke of.
The best thing about browser-based integration (as opposed to desktop-based integration) is that the browser is a much more universal platform. You can drop Ubiquity into any platform that supports your browser. On the other hand, the web is still very much designed for a keyboard-and-monitor interface, which is why there are so many dedicated iPhone / mobile versions of websites. Will there be (a) Ubiquity Mobile version(s)? And if so, why not look at platform-specific solutions that integrate with the desktop instead of the browser?
Sorry if my comments sound agressive or argumentative, that’s not my intention; I’m mostly thinking out loud here…
Qole - September 10, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I don’t see an aggressive tone in your comments. 
And, I mostly agree with you. I like having single-page integration as opposed to multi-tab, so that I can access whatever I need on whatever page I’m on without having to switch back and forth.
And, I mostly agree with you. I like having single-page integration as opposed to multi-tab, so that I can access whatever I need on whatever page I’m on without having to switch back and forth.
timsamoff () (URL) - September 10, 2008 at 1:17 pm
