May 22, 2005

Someone please tell me what 'Tab Browsing in Internet Explorer' actually means before I spend yet another wasted hour trying to find the answer that doesn't seem to exist... ANYWHERE!

[UPDATE: Apparently there's and MSN Toolbar team blog (hmm, who knew..) and in this blog there is definitely clarification as to what the advertised Tab browsing feature is all about... Yep, its actually the tab browsing made famous by Firefox so I guess I have to renegotiate my stance to instead state:

Please don't "announce" a product [UPDATE: oops, this should read "product feature"] as part of a public advertisement until it actually is one. Thanks :D]

[Original Post]
Except on this ad on the MSN home page:

You may need to click the image to see things more clearly. And if you do you should quite clearly see:

Tab browsing in Internet Explorer

as one of the key features. Now I realize that Microsoft has a patent on "Tab browsing" that has nothing to do with UI tabs and everything to do with jumping from one link to the next in document order using the tab and shift + tab to cycle forward or backward through the document's anchor tags. But IE has had that since... 4.0? 5.0? I'm left to guessing but I'm almost positive this feature was available in the same browser that, when installed, placed that *WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME* channel bar on our desktops that we all thought was cool... for about an hour... at which point we spent another hour trying to figure out how to get it off our desktop.

Of course in the '96/'97 time frame (IE 4.0 era) we were still getting used to the idea of "Going to a website" and I think it was simply too much overload for us to think of the web "coming to us" via "Push" mechanisms which is how the Channel Definition Format served up via the Channel Bar on the Windows 95 desktop, Handheld PC's (the original WinCE device), Palm-sized PC's (the renamed PalmPC which was how MS and Palm Computing solved what would have been a nasty court battle... this same general form factor then became the Pocket PC which... wait, why am I telling you all this... oh, Channel Bar!) was being marketed. Anybody remember Pointcast? Same idea, without the XML... and A LOT MORE ANNOYING! Of course in the mean time Dave Winer was busy trying to figure this whole medium out which a few years later he did and this is why I am now writing this post... well, this is why I created a blog which, in essence, is the medium but not necessarily the reason for this post. Thats probably enough analyzing for one day, isn't it... anyway :D

Its funny to me how something so simple as a paradigm shift and terminology usage can be the decisive factor as to whether or not a technology becomes adopted (apparently I simply have to keep analyzing this damn thing to death. Sorry.) If the developers of the Channel Definition Format had stepped backed just a few more feet maybe they would have realized what eventually required the genius of Dave Winer to finally realize (or maybe I should say vocalize?) that it wasn't the technology that was flawed but the way the technology was being "pushed" onto the consumer instead of letting the consumer pull only the pieces that she or he had interest in. Using the "paper delivery" concept as justification disregarded the fact that once the paper boy/girl has delivered the paper its then up to you to pick it up and choose which parts seem interesting enough to read. Back in the day I guess they figured that after they deliver the paper to your doorstep the paper boy/girl would also be required to wait for you to wake up (and ring a bell or something just as annoying if you didn't come and get the paper when they wanted you to) and, while sitting on your lap, turns the pages for you, tells you what you are going to read, and then rings that damn bell again if you lost even the slightest of focus... Come to think of it I'm surprised Pointcast lasted as long as it did.

And this has what to do with Tab browsing?

I have no idea... While adding even more text to the "how'd we get here in the first place" heap is something you can never say "ENOUGH! We get it... please stop telling us yet again how we got to where we are... we know... can we please move on"... Um, actually, no you can say that exact statement and be spot on so I will take it upon myself to end this nonsense right now.

Going back to my plea for help... Can someone please shed some light onto what Tab browsing means in regards to the new MSN Search Toolbar for Internet Explorer? If that's just a "clever" MS marketers attempt to use an 8 year old technologies connection to what most people think about when they hear "Tab browsing" then can I suggest one thing? You're not clever. You're stupid. Furthermore you should be fired for coming up with something so rediculous.

Then again maybe there is Tab browsing as part of the new Toolbar and I simply am incapable of figuring out how to either turn it on or at very least find ANY other reference to it within the documentation, MSN.com, Microsoft.com, or any other generally related sites. Was this something that was going to be a surprise and then got pulled at the last second but someone forgot to tell the marketing department? If yes, I take back what I said about you being fired. If not, I stand rightly firm and inline with my statement. In fact you should not only be fired but your card key should be turned off before Monday morning even rolls around, your office packed up, and the boxes left just outside the double glass doors of whatever building you used to be in with a "BIG PHAT SIGN" on them that reads:

"TO WHOMEVER THIS STUFF BELONGS TO... GO AWAY! AND TAKE THIS SHIT WITH YOU IN CASE WHATEVER YOU HAVE IS COMMUNICABLE VIA SOME SORT OF SOMETHING OR OTHER THAT'S RATTLING AROUND INSIDE... BLAAAHHHHH!!!"

Enjoy your Sunday :D