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Farewell to the thin client

Traditional browsers now include so much new technology that their mission has changed. The question is: Changed to what?

By William Blundon, JavaWorld.com, 07/01/97

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," wrote Shakespeare. "A rose is a rose is a rose," was Gertrude Stein's version. Today, with literary deconstructionism and politically correct speech, words still have meaning. Their meaning, though, is temporal in nature. "The Gay '90s," for example, had a different meaning when it was coined a century ago than it may have today. Times change and frequently the meaning of words must change with them.

The Internet fosters a compression of time, and, with Internet concepts changing more quickly than the words associated with them, a tremendous emphasis is put on the words that mark its evolution. A year or two ago -- a century in Internet time -- everyone knew what a "browser" was: a lightweight, highly graphical software tool used for the amusement and occasional enlightenment of networked persons.

Time flies, and with it, the nomenclature of the Web. Sadly perhaps, the (relatively) carefree act of browsing has been replaced by something nearly indistinguishable from real work.

The time has come to ask two simple but important questions. Is the browser dead? What will replace it?

Is the browser dead?

In a word, yes -- the browser is dead. The term browser no longer accurately describes a product. It describes a feature of many products. Browser genes live on in a host of progeny ranging from second-generation Internet access products to completely integrated desktops like Netscape's Communicator. In the software industry, form follows function (for example, individual products are often packaged in such a way as to emphasize their use with other products as a unit), and in the Internet world many functions must be handled at the same time. Bundling functionality into what used to be a browser is continuing at an accelerating rate.

What was once a browser is now your office

In the networked economy, people make decisions, and software manages time, appointments, communications, and correspondence. As a result, scheduling and electronic mail are becoming a standard part of Internet access software.

In 1997, most people's e-mail messages are alphanumeric exchanges. Images, charts, and graphics typically are still exchanged as attachments. The chances of losing or being unable to read such attachments is directly proportional to their importance to you. The benefits of using browser technology in mail clients is compelling, and Internet Explorer, Navigator, and Communicator are rapidly becoming the standard mail viewers for more than just the technology-astute. As the transition from alphanumeric to HTML mail clients takes place, some strange anomalies occur. Indeed, technological backwardness is now measured by how many messages with unrendered HTML tags you are willing to endure before switching to a browser-based mail client. (More than five and you are officially an exhibit in Jurassic Park.)

What was once a browser is now your boss

"Browsing" implies you are in control of an interaction -- and not particularly serious about its consequences. Push technology is entering the browser domain, and you are not the pusher. You are rapidly becoming the pushee. Push entered the browser space as a mechanism for delivering customized channels of information to specific users. You were in command of what was presented and when.

This state of being in command changes markedly as push technology enters the corporate world, and your management decides what gets delivered to your desktop. The advantage is obvious: If you can deliver to individuals timely information tailored to who they are and what they do, there can be an immediate impact on productivity. The ultimate benefit of push inside the firewall is that the company can dynamically "narrowcast" information to individuals and groups to help them perform their jobs more efficiently. Browsers were fun; their replacement is all business.

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