I have loved the web ever since I discovered blogs and bloglines. I have never been a TV addict but the web put an end to whatever little I was watching on T.V. But being online and surfing the net for sixteen hours a day, I have some complaints. These arent major but something we should start looking at, before technorati becomes the new google.
Domain Names: Really really pathetically organized as of now. We have some random domains ".net", ".org", ".com", ".name" and countless countries. But why not have a domain name by category? Say, ".movie"? or ".tv" (".tv" is the domain name of a tiny island which is minting millions out of it)? Or ".food"? Because normally, websites are established not for specific countries but for the entire world. Web is another medium of advertisement and a quick one for a small company to showcase its potential to the whole world. In that case, if I were a small entrepreneur, I would rather get a domain name that will focus on my niche market rather than fight with the rest for the ".com" names. This will clear up the clutter in .com names and we will have websites with names that are relevant and not like the one you are currently reading :) .
Another advantage: if we have my dream browser, we will have a text parser that will function similar to the DOS text parser. Type ".food", it returns a list of the top ".food" sites (using an appropriate search engine).
Browser: Now this is one area I really really wish gbrowser will do something about. You see, when you type "nimbupani.com" it goes to nimbupani.com. But if you type x.y@gmail.com then it does not go to your email directly! Why shouldnt it? why cant a browser detect an email and directly go to the Inbox if the appropriate cookies are set? Why should I type "gmail.google.com" and then click another button over there. Agreed, it s a good torture technique but really after all these years, its time to get over it and invent a better process?
Organizer: I know people are already doing lots of stuff on this. Basically something like a dashboard within a browser which lots of people have predicted gbrowser will have. A dashboard with my mail, appointments, reminders, alerts when my favourite rss feeds get updated, weather and what I am planning to eat today. We can get much more information too (updates on the latest sports scores, for instance). We just need XML and the meta data stuff and you dont ever have to move your a$$ off your seat to find out the latest information.
Storage: In India, it takes years and years to keep waiting for a website to load. Why not use a bittorrent type of web server? Maybe use a distributed web server? I wonder why nobody has come up with a hosting solution using distributed storage systems? This is especially good for multimedia technologies. and for promoting the broadband experience. Even now, I would rather watch TV than webcasts. The initial download time is really slow even with 3Mbps connection. And I cant even dream of how long it will take in India where normal internet activity takes place with a 56kbps modem dial up.
Comments
4 years 7 weeks ago, Naveen wrote:
This bittorrent server thing is a cool idea. I don't know about the technical side of a server, but it should be worth it to see how much more sense i could put into this concept. Interesting.
4 years 7 weeks ago, deepak wrote:
Maybe u r looking for this dashboard:
http://www.nat.org/dashboard/
4 years 7 weeks ago, Srijith wrote:
Why not use a bittorrent type of web server?
A very simple bittorrent form of web server will be plagued by the issue of trust and data integrity. A group in our Univ has been working on a form of Content Distribution Network (CDN) for web contents. The project is called Globule (http://www.globule.org/) and is implemented as an Apache Webserver module. Though it does not allow the user to download parts of a file from various web servers, it allows for the user to be directed to the nearest server among the replicas. A bit like the Akamai caching technology, but much more flexible.
4 years 7 weeks ago, balaji shankar wrote:
hey...I hope Google (if Gbrowser is not a myth)/ Mozilla is watching this space. A lot of good ideas for the taking! way to go!
4 years 7 weeks ago, Prashant wrote:
For your organizing needs along with some visualization, lookup Freemind.
Haven't tried it myself, but will do so as some free time comes along.
4 years 7 weeks ago, Naveen wrote:
Hey Prashant ... I have tried Freemind. It is good though i did not continue using it. While starting off in a new field, freemind helps because everything is abstract to you. As it gets more and more detailed it becomes difficult to represent complexities. But nothing can be done ... if they try to make the software complex to represnt these complexities, then initiation would become difficult.
Data integrity is something the bittorrent has solved right, i mean, atleast for one file. Trust and also the concept of session etc. should be the challenge. Hey, www.globule.org is not working.
4 years 7 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Srijith: Thats great for a start! But I was thinking along the lines of "approved" distributed hosting services that have a chain of certification (something like verisign).
naveen: I think what Srijith is talking about is whether you know if your file is really what it claims to be. Like you think you are downloading from yahoo but its actually downloading from a spoofing server that claims to be yahoo. Do torrents support hashing? I dont think so.
4 years 7 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Deepak: Yup I am looking for something like that, but within a browser :)
4 years 7 weeks ago, K.Shyam wrote:
I guess its been a long time since u used net in india ! now-a-days serious net surfers @ home take up broadband with which u get easily 128+ !
of course the casual ones still use dial up.
K.Shyam
4 years 7 weeks ago, Anbu wrote:
The features mentioned are really kool.I dont think adding these features is a problem.But adding these features may have the affect in the processor needs of the client.The more luxury we want at our desktop more would be the applications running in our memory.This may slow down our machine.
The bittorent kinda web server is a kool idea.
4 years 7 weeks ago, arun wrote:
with 16 hrs on the net you probably even want the browser to cook your dinner ;)
4 years 7 weeks ago, sat wrote:
Trying to start up another technorati level discussion?
Some ideas do look good.
4 years 7 weeks ago, suthar wrote:
Webserver's a good thing. It had been around for quite some time I guess, however the community is still kinda small. Believe it's still confined to a small geographical location. Maybe this can b improved.
4 years 7 weeks ago, Ravages wrote:
Have you tried Flickr's Organizr. It's a cool app. I wish I had an app like Flickr for Movable type. Check it out.
4 years 7 weeks ago, Prashanth Rai wrote:
On the topic of the Organiser, I am going to wait for Chandler(http://www.osafoundation.org), This is founded by mitch kapoor - http://blogs.osafoundation.org/mitch/(lotus fame)
Also picking up from your line of thought, just check out the discussions on the Semantic Web(http://www.w3.org/2001/sw). I beleive that is the future.
4 years 7 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Prashanth Rai: Yup. I think thats where we need to go if we need to see 90% of the dream apps implemented :)
DIdnt know about Chandler tho.
Ravages: I dont like flickr =) but i will give it a try.
Arun: Hehe wud love tht too! :)
Shyam: Have u tried loading a flash intensive website. It takes YEARS! Not so in Singapore iwth broadband. I can actually visit six websites at the same time without any significant delay in connection!
Anbu: I am talking about taking the applications to the servers! The only processor level stuff the client requires very basic handling.