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November 12, 2002

Death to aggregators!

I think the biggest improvement we're likely to see in the next-generation browser (whether from Apple or someone else) is the integration of a news aggregator. They've remained independent programs for now, but I don't think that can last for desktop users. For webmasters, there are benefits to a standalone aggregator, especially the ability to generate custom pages of other sites' headlines, but for the person using one for better browsing, there's a lot of interface overhead for not a lot of benefit.

Look at how you usually use the aggregator. If you're like me, your aggregator is the receptionist for your browser, helping you filter out who actually gets admitted to your browser. I typically browse headlines, leaving a trail of open tabs and windows behind the aggregator window. When I'm done with the headlines, I switch over to the browser, and gradually close the windows I've generated.

It seems like the aggregator could be reduced to a panel (like the Mozilla sidebar, or perhaps a floating palette) so that you could watch the headlines come in without leaving the browser, and your browser could better manage the resulting windows. It could use the RSS data to to open all the sites with entries on a particular link in a single, tabbed window, or to organize your history.

You might even be able to precache sites with headlines that matched certain criteria for faster display -- there are certain sites where I read everything posted, so why not set up a tab, or at least cache the content, so it appears instantly when I'm ready to look at it?

November 12, 2002 in Weblogs | Permalink

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Death to aggregators!:

» assimilation the fate of aggregators? from quotidian
Nicest of the Damned It seems like the aggregator could be reduced to a panel (like the Mozilla sidebar, or [Read More]

Tracked on Nov 12, 2002 6:39:31 PM

» Death to aggregators? from Jäger
Frank Steele writes: Look at how you usually use the aggregator. If you're like me, your aggregator is the receptionist for your browser, helping you filter out who actually gets admitted to your browser. I typically browse headlines, leaving... [Read More]

Tracked on Apr 27, 2004 4:21:37 PM

» Death to aggregators? from Jäger
Frank Steele writes: Look at how you usually use the aggregator. If you're like me, your aggregator is the receptionist for your browser, helping you filter out who actually gets admitted to your browser. I typically browse headlines, leaving... [Read More]

Tracked on Apr 27, 2004 4:55:44 PM

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Posted by: Max at Jun 11, 2004 11:18:14 AM