The me:// protocol and Firefox
In 2010 even the small kids know Internet is a very large space of bytes. I am browsing it every day like billions of people, but I am using only a little part of it as user and contributor.
My Internet is exactly the part I am using from the biggest Internet. What am I expecting from a new generation of browser? The answer is … to support me:// protocol.
Of course this protocol doesn’t exist and will never exist, but this protocol gives you an idea what I am expecting a browser to do.
I am not interested in Bookmarks
Let me first ask you a question. How often do you bookmark some stuff? OK, how often do you visit this websites later? See?
Right now I have more than 200 bookmarks, with tags and categories and I visit the bookmarks that are visible on my bookmark sidebar. Why? Because I don’t need them actually. Yes it is true. If I need something I will search for it, instead of using a bookmark. It is easy and I know I will find what I need faster than browsing bookmarks. Fact!
A browser must know what I want to visit.
No, I am not talking about AI. A new generation browser must remember what and when I visit and to suggest me an option. For example, I am reading every day news from a couple of websites and yes I am reading it at a particular time frame (9-10 in the morning).
What I expect from a browser is, if the time is 9.15 and I am opening my browser, to see several news websites links to choose from. Something like that:
Saved searches
Yes. I prefer to use a search engine to find what I need, but the browser must remember what I am searching for and when and if the next time I do the same search, the browser should display a message that I have made this search 2 weeks ago and I have visit those sites:
This is the new generation bookmark for me. Of course I will have history of my searches and visit sites linked to them.
Me://
My Internet are not only the websites, but my mail and my schedule. I am expecting my browser to show me information of some linked products like Sunbird and Thunderbird, something like that:
A brilliant idea. Is there any way to implement this????????
@ArpitNext – Maybe we can make an add-on, to do such things. It is not so hard to do it.
To each his preferences I’d say.
– I have a lot of bookmarks, organised hierarchically (tree-wise) and I know that I’ll find a bookmarked site much faster by means of the Bookmarks menu and its submenus than if I have to search for it using a search engine.
– For sites that I’ve visited recently, I use history completion; and if nothing comes up in the history drop-down, I can still (but as a last resort) use the search option at its bottom.
A great idea indeed, that certainly could do with been implemented.
To expand, it could also be a utility to pool in a users popular social network profiles. Maybe even a fusion of the Raindrop project :)
No, I am not talking about AI
Maybe not, but you’ve got to be pretty smart – one of the most annoying things software can do is to try to be helpful, and not get it 100% right. The most extreme example of that was the stupid Office paperclip, but it’s true of any program – the software must either stay out of the way, or it must genuinely be helpful.
I have over 1,200 items in my bookmarks… the majority are from way back in Netscape 3.0 days… but I still want to keep them because if I wanted to get to those sites as I remember their content more then the name or branding. Also.. I have 4 folders on my shortcut bar filled with stuff I visit several times a day..
I like clicking on menus better then waiting for Google to load, moving my hands to the keyboard and then hoping for handy results.
I have to take an issue with one claim in your article. Yes, I have also non-used bookmarks *before* Firefox 3.0, but I have to admit, one of the most revolutionary effects of the Awesome bar (and the reason why I actually think it *is* awesome) was introduction of tags to the mix. Now I have plenty of bookmarks but I don’t keep any hierarchy and I never go to the Bookmarks menu … but I am running Firefox bookmarks as my private del.icio.us … just put couple of tags to the location bar and Firefox quickly filters out the URL I was looking for. Works pretty well for me. And no, of course, I don’t have ANY hierarchy in my bookmarks, I just dump them all to Unsorted Bookmarks.
I think instead of throwing the bookmarks away, this personal del.icio.us (with Weave making it not so personal if needed) is way to revive the idea of bookmarks.
Day of week and time of day have been under-represented in the Mozilla dialogue so far… thanks for mentioning it.
I’m doubtful of the claim that users don’t use bookmarks. On support.mozilla.com, “bookmarks” is the top search term. And when you ask “OK, how often do you visit this websites later”, I’m not sure what you think I answered. :-)
I used the bookmarks, and for me its very usefull