Browser wars: Rest in peace

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

An article from John R. Patrick, vice president, Internet Technology,
at IBM that some people may find interesting on the directions the
Internet may take.

Cheers
David

Browser wars: Rest in peace

 By John R. Patrick, vice president, Internet Technology, IBM Corp.
Special to ZDNet 
January 31, 2001 5:43 AM PT
 
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that is nowhere
more apparent than with technology. 

Take the telephone, for instance. After the printing press and the
telegraph, the telephone was one of the biggest advances in
communications mankind has ever seen. Few recall this date, but in
1891, Almon B. Strowger developed his "Strowger machine-switching
system." Essentially, this system freed telephone users from
operators -- from interaction with Ma Bell. 

The era of "operated-assisted" calls was over. The telephone became
faster and easier to use, and had greater privacy -- personal and
business communication would forever be changed. 



Just over a century later, we are on the cusp of a similar
phenomenon. Today, most interactions with the Web are through a
browser. "So what's wrong with that?" you say. "I fire up my browser,
go to my stock trading site, banking site, and so on, and maybe click
here to buy something. It works." 

But just as talking to an operator for every call limited what you
could do with the phone system, having to use a browser is limiting
what can be done on the Web. And just as Ma Bell was in the midst of
each phone call, so browser makers' brands are front and center in
every experience on the Web. 

 See http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2680241,00.html
for the full article


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David Goldstein

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