Why Firefox is Web 2.0, Google Doesn’t Get It and Microsoft Is Back in the Game
By Tim Coyle |
November 3rd, 2005
Comments (2)
Microsoft’s recent ‘Live’ announcements was a bunch of different stuff all happening at once. But what I found most fascinating is the renewed interest in these ‘personalized homepages’. The concept of a ‘personalized homepage’ as a one-stop shop web portal has been around forever. Just about every major company has tried it at one point and time. But now we have Microsoft’s start.com and live.com and of course Google’s own version. The idea is that you will use this page to get RSS feeds, weather, stock quotes, email – everything under the sun. Consider it a web OS, a mini operating system right in your browser.
There’s only one problem with this idea – it’s not the webpage that’s the portal it’s the web browser. This is what Firefox knows – that’s why they have extensions. You can’t fit everything into one webpage easily but in the confines of the browser you can. With Firefox extensions, I get weather, stock quotes, RSS readers, email clients and so much more. And I’m not confined to one ‘start’ page. What happens when I do a search? I lose my start page. What happens when I add more than 5 or 6 RSS feeds to my start page? It starts to get cluttered real fast. Firefox is Web 2.0 because it understands how people use the web and does two things at once: it allows users to browse the web dynamically for information and keep some information static all in the same user experience window.
Now Microsoft might not be on track with the start page but the gadgets are going to be great. They will be independent of the browser but can be used in the browser. If Microsoft can utilize the gadgets with Internet Explorer and Windows itself then they can get into the Web 2.0 game.
Since Thursday, Google is back in the game! They released Google Desktop Search 2, which includes a sidebar. You can install plugins, to get
Firefox also enforces its position, by giving away a prize for the extension with the “Best Integration with a Web Service” at the Extend Firefox competition.
I think that Google is smart to try to use it’s Desktop Search product to counter Microsoft’s coming Vista toolbar and gadgets. I wonder how long before Google does it’s own gadgets? Would they call them ‘googledts’?
I love Firefox and their extensions. Their is one called AllPeer Media Center that is coming out soon (might actually be more of a paid service) that is a lot like Orb Networks that allows you to stream your media on the web.