Le lundi 8 juin 2015 10:05:11 UTC-1, Chris Peterson a écrit :
What do users really want?
If we were to follow trends, Mozilla should probably pivot to producing
porn and pictures of cats.
What is a browser? Is it a simple window to the web? Or an integrated
communications suite for online services?
History tells us that trying to bundle everything is a bad, bad, idea.
Allowing people to keep track of what they've read/are willing to read
later has always been one of the core functionality of modern web
browsers. "Bookmarks" anyone?
Despite the fact that browsers UX have greatly improved over time (so
have users' expectations), bookmarks have received little to no
attention. One might consider that the type of services provided by
pocket/instapaper/read-it-later/whatever are just drop-in fixes for
something that has been neglected for too long: actually provide
functionalities to "mark" things that want to be read/watched/looked at.
And in 2015, they want to be able to do it across devices. It's not an
option, Safari does it. This is something that kept countless users I
tried to convert to Firefox from switching, because Sync is broken [1].
[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/User_Services/Sync
# Does it make sense to provide built-in services to improve webpages
readability?
As much as much as, at some point, providing built-in pop-up blocking
functionalities became necessary. As much as killing <blink> and
<marquee>. Publishers/websites-owner are still learning about web
typography, web publishing using modern technologies and/or have already
transformed their websites into blinking Christmas trees. Maybe they
will never learn but the need for reading was there ten years ago and is
going to be there ten years from now.
So YES, it should be a core functionality. Money and time should be
dedicated to this so that Firefox remains independent from third
parties.
# Does it make sense to provide built-in services to store and organize
contents?
YES, it is just how bookmarks should have been from the beginning
(beyond the role of saving a link to a page). Users can already organize
tabs, group them (panorama/tab groups), search though them, restore them
when the browser starts,…
Browsers are already providing these kind of functionalities. The
question isn't "do we want to do it?" but "do we want to keep on
improving in that field?". It is already a core functionality and should
not be outsourced.
# Finally, should Pocket/whatever be integrated into the browser?
YES, if Mozilla is going to buy the company. NO, otherwise, for all the
reasons that have been repeated here countless times (privacy, free
software, don't let Firefox become the new Lotus Notes,…).
# Is it enough?
NO, money and time should also be dedicated to Sync because these
functionalities are complementary.
C.A.
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