An Archaeology of Browsing...

Grok Headline matches for An Archaeology of Browsing...

plasticbag.org | webl0g | An Archaeology
of Browsing...

plasticbag.org | webl0g | An Archaeology
of Browsing... 02/19/2004 01:33 AM
keeping lots of browser windows open even if you're not going to return to them for a couple of weeks might just be the way forward .. “cleaned out” his browser .. An Archaeology of Browsing

plasticbag.org/archives/2004/02/an_archaeology_of_browsing. shtml
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art and archaeology

art and archaeology 03/20/2003 09:36 AM
"Welcome to Old Stones, a website about selected topics in ancient art and archaeology."

graffiti archaeology

graffiti archaeology 01/16/2004 11:31 AM

Very cool work by Cassidy Curtis.

Graffiti Archaeology is the study of graffiti-covered walls as they change over time. The grafarc.org project is a timelapse collage, made of photos of San Francisco graffiti taken by many different photographers from 1998 to the present.

Using the grafarc explorer, you can visit some of San Francisco's classic spots, see what they looked like in the past, and explore how they have changed over the years.

via danah boyd (her site is down right now)

Graffiti Archaeology

Graffiti Archaeology 12/18/2003 01:04 AM
Eric Rodenbeck and Cassidy Curtis have created a masterful timelapse photographic collage of various San Francisco graffiti sites to show how these urban canvases have changed over the last five years. It's a design tour de force. Link

When the Games Began: Olympic
Archaeology

When the Games Began: Olympic
Archaeology 03/08/2004 11:24 PM
The exuberance and pageantry of the original Greek games will be re-enacted in August at the next modern Olympic Games.

Web Browsing on Your PSP

Web Browsing on Your PSP 03/27/2005 10:46 AM

Browsing for Alternatives

Browsing for Alternatives 08/19/2004 09:51 AM

Direct and Related Links for ' Browsing for Alternatives'

“Following the discovery that several major financial institutions’ Web sites were being used to spread an Internet Explorer exploit, The Register ran the story, “CERT recommends anything but IE.” CERT’s point is that enterprises and individual users can reduce their risk exposure by using browsers that aren’t as susceptible to Web-based exploits. So, why are we giving malware writers easy targets? Why aren’t we switching to more secure browsers? When Robert Morris released his famous…

The pleasures of browsing

The pleasures of browsing 07/19/2004 09:53 AM
I don't know Debbie Davidson, but I went to her LiveJournal blog because she dropped me a line about something I'd written. Thumbing through the entries, you not only get dropped into the stream of her life, but you find stories like this one about how 9/11 intersected the lives of several of her friends. We just haven't had anything quite like this before....

Tabbed Browsing

Tabbed Browsing 03/11/2003 09:44 AM

I've seen a lot of comments in various Mac forums where people have claimed that "Dave Hyatt said he doesn't like tabbed browsing!" or "Dave Hyatt hates tabbed browsing!" I find these posts perplexing, because I never said any such thing, and of course the opposite is true. I love tabbed browsing. I implemented tabbrowser in the Mozilla trunk. I implemented tabbed browsing in Chimera. I implemented the version used in Phoenix. Given how many times I've implemented it, I'm amazed that people would think that I am not a tabbed browsing devotee.

That said, I wanted to express some of my thoughts about the various UI decisions one has to make when designing a tabbed browsing system.

Target Audience

I think the most important question you have to answer before designing a multi-page system is "Who is my target audience?" In the case of Phoenix the target audience is experts and power users. I do not believe that tabs serve any useful purpose for novice users, because novice users don't ever use multiple views of Web data. They just browse from page to page.

The classic novice user Web setup is to have Windows IE maximized with the sidebar open. That kind of user simply doesn't need tabs. Tabs are total overkill for what that person wants to do with his/her Web browser.

That is why I think ideas like this, although extremely pretty, seem to be targeting an audience that IMO doesn't exist. A power user doesn't want thumbnails, since they wouldn't be easily distinguishable anyway once you opened several tabs, the overflow mechanism for such a system would be clumsy (or would use too much space, scrollbar anyone?), and you lose too much horizontal real estate. Sure, it's got a neat initial "whizzy" factor to it, but it's simply not as usable or as scalable as the classic tab strip model.

Bookmark Groups vs. Folder Options

This is something I've implemented three different ways in Phoenix, Mozilla, and Chimera. In both Chimera and Mozilla the bookmark group is a special entity that you have to make by taking a tab snapshot. I now hate this idea. The implementation is to just have a tagged special folder that when clicked loads all the bookmarks in tabs, a sort of one-click clustered loading. This complicates bookmark management and viewing, since you now have this third kind of entity along with regular folders and bookmarks.

I much prefer the system we came up with for Phoenix, which is borrowed somewhat from Opera. In this system, folder submenus pick up an extra "Open in Tabs" menu item, and you can just load any folder's children in tabs. No special new kind of bookmark group, and no special means required for creating bookmark groups. You just work with folders and can now load a single page of a group by drilling into a folder, or load all the pages in a group.

With the Chimera way, you'd end up having a Blogs group, and then you'd also have to bookmark individual blogs for when you didn't want to load the group. You had needless replication that is avoided by just making the operation available on folders instead.

Replace vs. Append?

When doing clustered loading, we took two approaches. One can be seen in Mozilla, and I personally hate it. The other can be seen in Phoenix and is my favorite choice. Mozilla actually appends the tabs loaded by a bookmark group to the end of the tabbed list. This means that if you click first on a News group and load tabs 1-5 and then click on a Blogs group, you'll end up with new tabs 6-10.

In Phoenix, you replace instead, so the News tabs go away and are replaced by tabs 6-10. The argument for append is basically that you end up with potential data loss in that you may lose access to the previous tabs by closing up some of the ones you replaced, e.g., if the second group has fewer tabs than the first. This is of course a solvable problem, though, and doesn't justify changing the default behavior to append.

Position of Tabs inside the Tab Strip

Chimera centers tabs within the tab strip. Everyone else puts them on the left. The only reason Chimera does this is because I couldn't figure out how to use the normal tab widget to make the tabs be left-aligned. Center-alignment for a dynamic tab system is of course awful, since for every tab you open, all of the tabs move.

It's much better to avoid moving all of the tabs around when a single new tab opens, and left-aligning the tabs inside the tab strip makes for a much less jarring experience.

Where do new tabs open?

A highly debated issue with tabs is "Where should new tabs open?" NetCaptor and the old Chimera (in early versions) use the following model. If you click to open a link in a new tab, then the new page will open just to the right of the current tab. Links will continue to open to the right if you keep opening them, so you may have a setup like this:

1 2 3 4

where 2 is the active tab, and you then open three more links from 2 and end up with:

1 2 7 6 5 3 4

The advantage of this approach is that similar pages stay together. The disadvantage is that the opening of new tabs is more jarring, since you do an insertion in many cases rather than an append.

A disadvantage is that you have to read the pages from right to left in order to preserve the original order. Because of this, when you *close* tabs, this model dictates that you move to the left.

You do have the advantage that when you finish with the child links, you conveniently end up back at the original document as you close up tabs.

The second model, and the one I favor (used in Phoenix, Chimera, and Mozilla now) is to always open new tabs on the far right. Usability testing at AOL showed that this was far and away what users expected to happen, and it lends a smoothness to the tab opening process, since you never move any other tabs.

You also get to read links from left to right instead of right to left, e.g., the previous example would result in:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

In this model, in order to be able to browse the links you open effectively, when tabs are closed you need to move to the right. Note that when you finish with child links, you don't end up back at the previous page in this case, but in the common case, you do. Note that by far the common case is to simply have:

1

and that you'll open a few links, end up with:

1 2 3 4

and still end up back at 1 once you close up. The ability to easily read left to right, and to not shuffle the tabs around on the tab strip when you open new links more than makes up for the edge case where you may not end up back at the parent tab.

Close Boxes

I actually prefer Galeon's behavior here. Phoenix and Mozilla offer close boxes for the tab strip, but this UI frankly stinks, because the user expectation is that clicking on the X will actually close up the entire tab strip. In effect, the X should map to the "Close Other Tabs" command, but instead it maps to "Close Selected Tab." This is utterly confusing, and at least Chimera avoids the problem by not having a close box at all.

The right way IMO to do this is to have a close box for closing up the tab strip itself in the same place Phoenix and Mozilla have it, but to also have close boxes on the tabs themselves (the way Galeon does it). With this model, it's clear what the different close metaphors are, and you don't end up with user (even power user) confusion.

Background vs. Foreground

Despite the inconsistency with opening links in new windows, I strongly support the default in Phoenix, which is to open links in new tabs in the background by default. This option should be overridable with a modifier key (SHIFT in Phoenix) and also the default should be controllable via a pref. Phoenix, Moz and Chimera all have the same pref and modifier key, but only Phoenix defaults to background loading by default.

It's really interesting just how many different choices have been made by tabbed browsing implementers. Pick the browser that implements the system you like best I guess. :)

Opera browsing, as seen on TV

Opera browsing, as seen on TV 09/09/2004 08:43 PM
Opera Software releases a new version of its browser, aimed at viewing Web pages on TV.

Browsing at Google

Browsing at Google 09/22/2004 09:59 AM
The rumors about Google becoming a Web browser begin to swirl in earnest.

Browsing the Web? Not Anymore

Browsing the Web? Not Anymore 07/09/2004 04:50 PM
I can't remember the last time I actually browsed the Web. You know, just sort of aimlessly following links in the hopes of encountering something unique or interesting. (I'm also glad that idea of calling it "surfing" seems to have become less popular.) Between the few sites I visit daily to get things done, links that come in via e-mail, and the various weblogs and news feeds I guess I'm spending enough time in my browser already. It's a far...

Faster Browsing Tips

Faster Browsing Tips 08/12/2004 05:04 PM
WebDevInfo Aug 12 2004 8:01PM GMT

Python Browsing Probe 0.1.0

Python Browsing Probe 0.1.0 05/08/2004 07:35 AM
A shell-like interpreter/Web browser for creating test scripts.

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.2

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.2 05/21/2004 04:06 PM
A shell-like interpreter/Web browser for creating test scripts.

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.1

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.1 05/17/2004 04:36 PM
A shell-like interpreter/Web browser for creating test scripts.

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.0

Python Browsing Probe 0.2.0 05/12/2004 06:45 PM
A shell-like interpreter/Web browser for creating test scripts.

Python Browsing Probe 0.3.0

Python Browsing Probe 0.3.0 07/07/2004 12:59 AM
A shell-like interpreter/Web browser for creating test scripts.

Browsing will be nicer under Longhorn --
but how?

Browsing will be nicer under Longhorn --
but how? 12/30/2003 01:32 AM
Robert Scoble: “Using a Web browser on Longhorn will be far nicer than using it on Windows XP.” How so? This wasn't addressed at Microsoft's PDC. Robert won't say yet....

Google Goes Browsing By Name (PC World)

Google Goes Browsing By Name (PC World) 07/15/2004 08:54 AM
PC World - Toolbar now lets users navigate the Web without using URLs.

New MSN toolbar with tabbed browsing

New MSN toolbar with tabbed browsing 06/17/2005 05:11 PM
"Want to keep more than one website open at a time, but tired of managing multiple Internet Explorer windows? Tabbed browsing lets you have multiple pages open in a single Internet Explorer window."

contrary to the story's suggestion, even
browsing will be a

contrary to the story's suggestion, even
browsing will be a 08/08/2004 12:25 PM
TechTree Aug 8 2004 2:49PM GMT

IE's Tabbed Browsing Embarrassment

IE's Tabbed Browsing Embarrassment 06/17/2005 04:33 PM
Asa is smacking someone on the IE team pretty hard today: It's obviously a hack that's actually based on new windows for each tab. I can crash it at will. It's so flickery as to be completely unusable. It's filled with serious dataloss bugs. It's just crap, plain and simple. Anyone that makes any excuse for this embarrassment, please trackback me because I'm very interested in hearing how anyone can defend it. Yikes. At least there's a semi-amusing trail of...

Opera 8 aims for simpler browsing

Opera 8 aims for simpler browsing 04/19/2005 11:12 AM
New version of browser aims to attract more first-time users, but can it match Firefox's pizazz?

Beyond browsing: Tools for the advanced
Web surfer

Beyond browsing: Tools for the advanced
Web surfer 06/26/2002 01:00 PM
ZDNet Jun 25 2002 0:07AM ET

AOL Testing Mobile Browsing, Search

AOL Testing Mobile Browsing, Search 04/14/2005 03:07 PM
On the heels of Google adding local capabilities to its mobile search, AOL has begun beta testing its own mobile service that offers full Internet search queries, information on local interests and shopping destinations. Users simply add the AOL Mobile Search URL into their phone and they can begin to browse full Web sites.

One Million Browsing with Opera Mobile

One Million Browsing with Opera Mobile 09/20/2004 03:01 PM
theWHIR Sep 20 2004 7:17PM GMT

Yahoo! browsing for local partnerships

Yahoo! browsing for local partnerships 08/03/2004 04:11 AM
CHINAdaily Aug 3 2004 8:42AM GMT

"Homer Simpson uses tabbed browsing"

"Homer Simpson uses tabbed browsing" 12/19/2004 03:21 PM

Net phone browsing hits new high

Net phone browsing hits new high 08/06/2004 08:04 PM
The Euro 2004 football tournament had a big influence on June's top mobile ringtones.

The State Of Mac Browsing: An
Embarrassment Of Riches

The State Of Mac Browsing: An
Embarrassment Of Riches 08/20/2004 12:58 PM
For me, Safari comes out on top. I'll stick with it, because the navigation and security tools are convenient and easy to use. By Rebecca Freed, PC World (via MyAppleMenu)

CERT Recommends NonIE Browsing

CERT Recommends NonIE Browsing 06/30/2004 04:10 PM
"The U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, the official U.S. body responsible for defending against online threats, also advised security administrators to consider moving to a non-Microsoft browser among six possible responses."

Speed up web browsing with a local name
server

Speed up web browsing with a local name
server 06/11/2004 11:47 PM
If you often find that Safari gives an alert that it can't find a page, but it loads when you retry, the probablem may be slow DNS responses from your ISP. This thread in Apple's discussion forum gives a good workaround. I've tried it myself and I found that it actually does speed up web browsing.

10.3: Enable AppleTalk server browsing

10.3: Enable AppleTalk server browsing 10/30/2003 11:31 AM
For some reason, Panther's ability to browse a network for AppleTalk servers is turned off by default. To turn it back on, go to Applications -> Utilities -> Directory Access, and put a check in the box next to AppleTal...

10.3: Disabled AUTOMOUNT causes browsing
issues

10.3: Disabled AUTOMOUNT causes browsing
issues 11/16/2003 01:47 PM
After installing Panther I found that, although I could connect to remote servers via IP addresses, the Network Browser did not find any servers on our LAN. I traced the problem to a change that I made in the /etc/hostconfig ...

Explorer's rivals allow for tabbed
browsing

Explorer's rivals allow for tabbed
browsing 01/11/2004 07:12 PM
It has a built-in popup blocker and a built-in Google search box that spares you the need to navigate to the Google Web site. There's ...

TinyRoulette - an AppleScript for
chaotic browsing

TinyRoulette - an AppleScript for
chaotic browsing 03/06/2004 02:09 AM
I wrote this script (and a couple of other variations) to see what other people are using URL shortening services for. The script simply generates random strings of four characters and then opens a new browser window and conn...

Amazon Search Bar Will Track Your
Browsing

Amazon Search Bar Will Track Your
Browsing 04/17/2004 11:21 AM

"Surf's Down as More Netizens Turn to
RSS for Browsing"

"Surf's Down as More Netizens Turn to
RSS for Browsing" 05/08/2004 09:06 AM

Grok Description matches for An Archaeology of Browsing...
GrokA matches for An Archaeology of Browsing...

An Archaeology of Browsing...

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: