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| A Macroscopic View Of Web Pages |
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posted by Editor on Tuesday October 23, @12:02PM
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Urbanpixel has developed a technique called tiled browsing, which decomposes the web into "atomic browsing units" that are much smaller than an actual browser window. With this approach, it is possible to change content on just parts of a web page much faster, since the entire page does not have to be regenerated - instead, only the browsing tile that needs the changes is updated. It can also be used to create web spaces that are much larger than a browser window. For example, the company has created a space comprised of the top 10,000 web sites that is the size of a virtual football field, but can be easily loaded even over a 28.8K modem. Here are some screenshots of the technique, which the company is positioning as a data visualization solution that allows business to monitor the overall appearance of their web presence.
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Right. And "Atomic Browsing Units" sound suspiciously like "Web Pages". This doesn't strike me as any more (r)evolutionary than having your web page hyperlinks pointing at separate pages instead of internal anchors with the # character.
Their "zoom/drill down to more detail" system sounds to me like a hierarchical directory structure. For instance, on my file server at home I have a directory called 'MP3'. It's pretty clear what's in there, but supposing I want to know more about this "Atomic Browsing Unit" called 'MP3'. I enter the directory and see 'alterna-rock','jazz', and 'soundtrack'. Now I know what types of MP3s are there, but supposing I still want to know more... I enter the 'jazz' directory and see 'Dave Brubeck', 'Bela Fleck', and 'Medeski, Martin & Wood'. Want to know more? Switch into 'Dave Brubeck', see the list of albums... enter an album directory, see which tracks are on that album. Open a file, hear the music & read the ID3 tag for year of release, URL, etc.
Slap a web interface that lays all my directories out in a grid and it and it sounds like 'Tiled Browsing' to me. Can I have some venture capital now, please?
This is my home page.
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Come on now, you can't can't judge a technology just by someone saying a few words about it. Did you take a look at the web site? It's unfortunate that there are no large screenshots to see the details, but it looks interesting.
-Mike
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OK, but I notice you didn't mention what was cool about it in your post. There was nothing in there, nothing that you found when you took a closer look, that got you excited enough to set me straight.
I'm beginning to think that 50% of an interface's utility rests in how you describe it. You can build the coolest thing in the world, but if no one can tell it's cool, it will just sit there. If people can walk up to what you've built, start using it, and are relieved and amazed at how quickly and easily it got them what they wanted, then you've built something successful. This has to happen without their having read your press release.
Your post is itself proof that Urbanpixel's press-release language is itself a bad user interface. Buzzwords that don't mean anything are just as bad as buttons that don't do what you thought. They don't get you venture capital anymore, either.
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by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24, @07:33PM EST (#5)
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Has anyone paid them money for this yet?
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It's hard to get a good look at what it is their interface is doing... they only provide thumbnails of their app interfaces on the site
:(
Matthew Weber
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