morloc.com: Timothy Kline Talks Technology

First let me say that I’m nearly 95% sold on Chrome as the browser that I’d recommend. I’ve been a mozilla user since Netscape was a viable and competitive web browser here and abroad. I did use Opera for a period of time, before Firefox came along and stole my heart until the last few months, when I became so fed up with the growing sluggishness of Firefox—with or without addons. It felt like the Windows of our day as far as web browsers were concerned.

Chrome, as I write this, has been a very efficient web browser. Is it for everyone? I don’t know, as I can only speak from my own usage and expectations.

But I might recommend one feature in particular that may be the answer, and this is my open letter to Chrome’s developers.

Again, speaking from my OWN usage, I tend to start Chrome at the Bookmark Manager. I treat my bookmarks exactly like a file manager. I have folders, just as if I was on an extended drive. In those folders, instead of files, I keep URLS or bookmarks. I retrieve the shortcut just like I would a file off my system, except it’s its own “program” (read: website).

In other words, developing a web browser must keep in mind the philosophy that every website out there is a “program” with a set of instructions (HTML, CSS, Java, Flash, HTML5). Loading a website is no different, philosophically speaking. The web browser is the operating system standing between that program and the end user. Everything is run from this ginormous hard drive called the internet. That IS the bottom line, isn’t it?

The Chrome browser should consider the Bookmarks Manager the "desktop" for end users, the first thing they see as they prepare to access the internet.

Setting that aside for now, there have been countless times when I wish there was a better array of viewing options when it comes to the Bookmark Manager. For me, the Bookmark Manager is a primitive OS that allows me to interface with and run virtual programs that in the common vernacular we call “websites.”

Now, look at how Windows Explorer handles file management. As you are moving around your system, you are given the open at every point to change your view of the folder you’re in: Details, List, and Icons. It’s this last option, Icons, that is especially lacking in Chrome. Addons like Speeddial are hacks to bring that functionality to Chrome and Firefox, but fall short of being the “Windows Explorer” of the web browsers. And, if you follow the logic to its reasonable conclusion, it also opens a way for Google to offer cloud storage and file backup services to users, easily handled through the Bookmarks Manager and a few lines of code.

Chrome should be to internet access what Windows Explorer is to local computing.

I can’t tell you how much I miss being able to, at times, switch to icon mode when it comes to my Bookmarks that I track and maintain. Seeing a large icon, for example, can often gain a faster response than having to scan down through a list. This easily carries over to Android OS, which does this currently when browsing folders of pictures. All it would do in the case of the web browser is “snapshot” the bookmarked site upon last visit.

Like Windows Explorer, the Chrome user should be able to see their internet access in diverse ways. As an example, being able to see the details of their bookmarked sites, such as how many times they've visited it, when was their last visit, and similar relative information.

Another feature sorely needed is to have a Details option in Bookmark Manager that allows the end user to see the date a site was last visited, how many times it’s been accessed, etc., along with a way to do quick-sorts by the column, ascension and descension.

While many people, by default, have their home page set to whatever was on there when they first ran it, I have little doubt that by having Chrome open to the Bookmark Manager, with the idea of serving as a GUI for the user on the internet, that it will achieve a whole new level of appeal. Or at least allow the option, perhaps at first run, along with a brief word or two about ideals of each for the end-user.

Having a way to view one's bookmarked sites as thumbnails is often a faster, more efficient way to speed up web browsing, rather than having to scan through lists. A thumbnail of a bookmarked site could be built or refreshed upon visit, and then on the Home page where one had their most-visited, the thumbnails can be refreshed upon loading the browser to key the end user to information they may want to know right at the starting gate.