Deepfish, interesting but crappy
I just read about Microsoft’s new mobile browser, Deepfish. I watched the video and contemplated. I think it’s an interesting idea - basically taking the google maps tile approach for zooming and scrolling and applying that to the web. It seems to give a pretty decent experience although the zooming interface itself is pretty clunky, requiring button presses and screen taps. Here’s my problems with this.
· It ties you to a service. Now the web browser is not a standalone app. It requires the good graces and continued support of Microsoft, since all those tiles need to be generated by the mothership. If Microsoft is having problems, no internets for you. And of course if the service is pulled for whatever reason, you’ll need to find a new browser. You also have to wonder how much about your device and browsing habits is going to be phoned home to mother Gates.
· It’s no longer text. So if you are looking something up, say contact info, you can’t copy and paste any more. You have to remember and rewrite this somewhere else. You also can no longer search for phrases in the page.
· It’s no longer html. If there’s a form or anything like that I have no idea how it could be handled. Does it just break that portion of the web? Because it turns out some people like a little interactivity on the web. I’m just saying.
· It’s completely flattened. I think there’s no support for javascript or flash in there - and not as a we haven’t rolled that out yet, but as a fundamental problem in the architecture of the piece. It turns out the web likes these things and many sites are going to not be ok without it. No widgets, no expanding menus, no nothing - all will just be gone. In a time where these technologies are expanding rapidly it’s a questionable decision to build a browser that isn’t ever going to be able to handle them.
So as far as I can tell (and really I can only tell from looking at the video and reading the article), it’s kind of sucky. The iPhone’s zooming web interface gets you the same functionality, except with a better interface and without breaking the internet. I said it before and I’ll say it again, microsoft stop dicking around with this crappy stuff and get to work on the future.
