Browser plug in Browster released version 2.0 of its product this weekend and is aiming to make MySpace profiles easier to view. A Windows download for IE and Firefox, Browster preloads pages from search results and provides a live minibrowser when inserted lightning bolts are hovered over. The new version also offers a live search box supporting a number of web, blog and shopping search engines inside the Browster window. Those search box results are combined with contextual ads. Future features will also generate ad revenue.
This version’s biggest change is that it makes the notoriously unnavigable profile pages on MySpace easier to use. Users can hover over friend photos or username links on one user page and get a preview of that friend’s profile in a Browster pop-up instead of having to click through, wait for the painfully slow page load and then repeat with the back button. Browster strips out the CSS hacks, music players and slideshows that clutter many pages - and that represent a big part of the business model of many startups profiled here! What’s left are the MySpace user’s “about me” section and all their photos. Essentially, it’s a way to check out someone’s friends and comment makers without having to leave one profile page and suffer through multiple pageloads (though Browster itself is only so fast). Browster may not be for everyone, but I actually find this new feature quite useful.
The San Francisco based company, whose CEO participated in our recent video documentary about Web 2.0, aims to take a cut of ads served inside their mini browser. One thing that can be said about the service is that it only pops up its previews when you hover over the lightning bolt icons instead of any time your mouse passes over any link. That’s a small distinction but one that makes Browster far more usable than, for example, competitor Cooliris (our coverage).
I think it’s a very useful idea, but unfortunately execution is easier said than done. An eight by five series of one user’s friend photos in rows can only be previewed vertically, one column at a time with the Browster “next” button stopping at the bottom of each column. Search results pages do navigate properly though.
The company’s revenue model is through ads on search box results and future features will have ads around them as well.
It’s mind boggling how many companies are making MySpace plays these days, but if the site can maintain its status as a virtual replacement for the rest of the web for many young people then it makes sense. It might sound strange to think of a whole new release of a preexisting product to target MySpace, but at an estimated 10k+ pageviews per second MySpace may be a big enough pie to make even small pieces a viable business strategy. Or fickle teenagers may move elsewhere and all these companies will adapt to the next fad social networking site. One way or the other, crazy as it might sound, I think that providing ancillary services for social networking environments is not a bad idea. If this morning’s announcement included how much AOL paid for Userplane that these sorts of strategies might appear all the more obviously viable.
Comments
All those Web 2.0 sites and products are so… uhm… USELESS. It’s not even a bubble, it’s a fad.
“browster” clearly is NOT web 2.0
if they wanted to be, they’d have to be “browstr”
Funny Will!…
I’m not sure I like the way they describe themselves as a tool that helps you have easier access to MySpace. To me that’s like saying the taxi was made to get people to the bar. There are other places to go online and browster is awesome for people who do hundreds of searches a day. But I guess this is a good marketing strategy, going for the specific (the infinitely popular specific, no less).
I agree with Some One…most have no real use, but there are some really good ones.
Unless there’s a deal with MySpace in place, how will Browster not get blocked, like so many others have been?
And, what’s the likelihood that kids will actually install a piece of software? This is the bet that I think Flock is wrong about — those young nubiles using MySpace often do so in schools, kiosks and other places where they’re unable to install that latest toy poodle app.
At the very least, they seem focused on the PC market, which seems to be MySpace’s largest user base — the same folks who equate the Blue E with the Internet and not a choice.
Marshall - infatuation with all things MySpace aside - has it occurred to you that Browster is scraping people’s content, wrapping it in their own ads and taking the revenue? How do you and Mike feel about your sponsors’ investment in TechCrunch being eliminated from page views of your work that Browster is now profiting from? I think addressing this should have been part of your coverage.
IMO, this was bad play two years ago when it was shown at DEMO and it remains a bad play today.
myspace will probably make their profiles easier to read one day. and cooliris is great. so what is the point? not really a sustainable business.
Marc, that’s not the case actually. The company told me that they put their ads above pages when they first launched, but have stopped doing that and now only monetize search results. Clearly they will need more in the future, but for now they seem focused on building a good user experience.
Marshall: Thanks for that update - I’m glad they changed that horrible policy. I’ll take a look at it now (I was definitely planning not to).
I have tried Browster and CoolIris, and CoolIris is a much more elegant solution, and it works on a MAC. Browster does not appear to have a business model, rev share from a thin amount of potential revenue generated in this model does not scale.
Why shouldn’t I just middle-click a link (or even multiple links) to load it in a new tab? There’s no need for Browster IMHO (except for IE users maybe…).
Also it forced me to download a huge jre.cab file, although I already have Java installed… just sucks
“how will Browster not get blocked”
Simple. Browster probably identifies itself as MSIE. Last I checked, Opera cloaks itself as MSIE by default. Many websites, like banks, require MSIE. So it’s easier to just “lie” and surf as “MSIE” even if you aren’t really using MSIE.
When you see that MSIE has 80% of the market or whatever, that doesn’t tell you for sure that all those people are using MSIE.
Marshall,
thanks for writing about Browster!
While we love to see the type of passionate enthusiasm for Browster as appears in Marc Orchant’s comment, I would like to clarify misconceptions in his post. Put simply, Browster does NOT wrap others’ content in our Ads. The Ad displayed in the Browster MySpace window is MySpace’s Ad.
In fact Browster is good for MySpace in a several interesting ways:
- Browster increases per-user page views for MySpace because the profiles are easier to navigate.
- The user experience is improved with no backend changes on their part.
- For every Browster user, the load on MySpace servers will be decreased, reducing their costs and improving overall site performance.
Browster believes that a big part of Web.next will be not only be personalized content, but ‘personalized viewing’ the power should be in the hands of the end users to view content the way they want. The Browster for MySpace feature is our first product along those lines. It is based on user-studies and feature requests to provide a custom view in the Browster window.
Scott Milener
CEO
Browster
Is there any way to use Browster with a Mac running Safari?
Interesting, I definitely like the google search feature. Sure, I can middle click and open it in a new tab, but that just makes it easier.
Is there support for other search engines and operating systems?
Cody Mays
http://www.threadbound.com
I tried regular browster, not with my space (I am 35 year old, MySpace is not my space).
I have installed it sometime back and after initial enthusiasm weared off in a day or so, I found it was boaring and in fact found it more bothering dispalying the preview when I dont need. So evenutally I’ve unstalled it.
Anybody found it lot useful? if so, how? I am wondering when it is more useful.
I may be missing something…
Ugh. Making a business out of a browser plugin? Sounds doomed from the start. I totally agree with Cruncher - the tool is more annoying than it is useful.
I don’t want to be mean, but I can’t believe this is an actualy company, with a CEO, an office, $$$, etc. This should be some kid’s hobby. There is zero commercial application for this, and it will never be adopted by enough people to make it worthwhile.
Would it be possible to duplicate Browster’s functionality with some smart Greasemonkey scripts? Seems like this is a perfect place for something like Greasemonkey and it obviates their business model in a quick and handy fashion.
In somewhat related news, a company called StudioLD just released a really nice Firefox extension that streamlines the look, feel, and functionality of facebook.com.
See my blog post on the extension at: http://sarahcpwilliams.com/wordpress/?p=87
There are already a bunch of Firefox extensions that do these kind of previews.
There are two things you should pay attention to…
@PJ: “Simple. Browster probably identifies itself as MSIE.”
@Scott: “For every Browster user, the load on MySpace servers will be decreased, reducing their costs and improving overall site performance.”
For one thing, Browster, from what I recall, has its own proxies which “speeds” page loading by caching everything. While Browster identifies itself as the host browser (IE or Firefox), it’s proxies could very well (I presume) be blocked — blowing the whole thing up.
This definitely is not the best plugin for this kind of preview. This is a case of a company creating something that didn’t stand out, so they tweaked one little thing and now its a “plugin for myspace”
Not impressed.
I have been using Browster’s viewer for MySpace and found other cool uses like contact “friends” without having to leave profiles or search pages.
Does a product like Browster protect my identy from those cookie-monsters out there online? (yeah, that’s my term for sites dropping cookies on my PC). Browsing with Browster seems like it will act as a buffer against these web sites.
“it’s proxies could very well (I presume) be blocked”
Whatever measure Myspace takes, a countermeasure would be pretty simple, especially w/ automatic updates. The user wouldn’t need to care–all that fun stuff would happen in the background. Myspace can block javascript, cgi links, or whatever, but they can’t tell the user what browser to use.
Meanwhile, from what I can tell there’s already people spending money for Myspace automation tools. Automatic friend adding, commenting, etc. Let’s say I have 20 friends and I finish a new drawing that I want to show off. Do I want to surf 20 pages and submit 20 forms? Not really. Every kid on the planet that dreams of being a rockstar, DJ, whatever, they are in coffee shops all over the world right now plotting world domination. They’ll use whatever tools they can get their hands on.
I’m not a big fan of Myspace, but I still think a custom browser for Myspace is a good idea.
Maybe this is just me… but since i installed Browster about a week ago my IE crashes much more often.
Frankly I just want to be able to turn it off easily or to choose sites I do not want it to work on. I have a number of web-based corporate applications that I do not want to pull through browser.
Those that are skeptics of Browster or any other innovation, hate to sometimes admitt that change and growth happened in front of there eyes (they are not profitting from it) and position themselves to say I told you so, while secretly thinking, why did I not think of that. Anyone that can’t admitt that it does make browsing easier on myspace or other wise is just a hater.
I wish them well.
GO BROWSTER!!!
LG — for sure. I don’t totally want to be a downer, but I think it’s worth considering whether this strategy is wise over time. I respect what Browster is doing; I can see the need — it’s just that exchanging short term gain with the MySpace crowd for the longer term building out of a solid, widely useful business is suspect given how crowded the space is.
@PJ — sites *can* dictate what browsers people use. Consider the Firefox campaign to get sites to switch… it wasn’t always (and still isn’t) a Firefox-friendly world.
And to this: “I’m not a big fan of Myspace, but I still think a custom browser for Myspace is a good idea.”
What do you think Flock is all about?
Chris Messina - Over time, hhmm. In time things come and go (fads), but the ability to build and profit with the time. Is that not how to run a business?
Chris, you know full well that Flock is not just a custom browser for MySpace, or any one service. Flock is a browser that aims to make the social web easier, and we hope to support as many services and types of social web interaction as possible.
Cheers,
Will Pate
Community Ambassador, Flock
LOL, ok ok, you got me. Sorry Will — didn’t mean that literally.
In the subtext, my point was that Flock is being built from the standpoint of taking things like MySpace social networks for granted — as in, they’re really central to the whole “social” web experience… whereas Browster was built to accelerate your surfing habits by using an intermediary caching proxy and an inline preview — and so they’re grafting in this MySpace stuff after the fact, to suit the pop trends of today.
I mean, look at the preview release of Flock. The three default bookmarks are MySpace, YouTube and Flock. This is clearly the audience that you’re going after and that’s fine. At the same time, while Flock should be building in support for lots of other services, other apps, like PictureSync, are far out-pacing you in terms of service interop.
Once Flock does offer wider support for many social networks, I’ll believe you that you’re not strictly focused on MySpace and YouTube. In general, I’d look at what Google does and take note: they never talk about stuff they’ve not yet shipped — I’m all about seeing Flock support *tons* of web services, as was the original intention. I just haven’t seen any new services added since the initial beta.
LG -
I hated (or rather unistalled it) browster because I did not like it. I found it too annoying, I move the mouse and I see the preview pane, I dont want it all the time. Some times, screens actually loaded slow which is in contrast what is expected . May be it was caching at that time, but as a user I was not happy with the product, no considerable gains of using it. It is not revolutionary, it may be good attempt to speed the navigation, but it was not enough. I dont know what is needed but it was not worth the space on my laptop.
I love web 2.0 innovations.They make life easier, make my productivity increase, and moreover they are free. But Browseter is definately not one of them.
I kinda agree with the comments above about whether or not plug-ins like Browster (and Cooliris) are web 2.0 innovations. But at the end, does this philosphical debate matter?
I tried Browster and Cooliris and found them helpful. Unfortunately, Browster 2.0 wreaked havoc on my internet explorer, alot of my secure sites stopped working. Cooliris gave me no problems. Honestly, if I had to choose one over the other, I’d go with Cooliris. Cooliris keeps it simple thus works great. The nice feature is that you can enable/disable Cooliris on individual sets. I use Cooliris on both my Firefox and Internet Explorer. One of my friends uses Cooliris for Safari browser and says its awesome.
Back to philosophical debates . . . what constitute web 2.0 depends on how you define web 2.0., which was kind of a marketing term by itself, anyway.
Took one look at the privacy policy and decided I did not want my entire surfing history stored on their servers… No identifiable information is stored, they say, just your unique ID and IP address (lol) Bzzzzt, cancel installation.
Not a big fan of sponsored links in my browser. I’ll pass and wait for a truly free version to come along.
Interesting site http://portaldiscount.com/managed-forex/
Leave Comment
Commenting Options
Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking the button below.
Alternatively, you can create an avatar that will appear whenever you leave a comment on a Gravatar-enabled blog.