Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » NY Times' Reader one-ups browser

October 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)

NY Times' Reader one-ups browser

TAGS: Browsers

I love the Web, but I am fed up with Web browsers. And what better time to yell it out! with the Web 2.0 proponents preparing a world of apps to run in a browsers and take over for desktop apps.

Oliver Rist survived the week on Browser Island, but I am not sure I could do it, and I think the whole push is just plain lame. (I am tainted by editing this Web site with a mish-mash of browser-based "UIs", and of course Movable Type.)

Well, I found some relief from browser hell the other day: NY Times' Reader, a little desktop app, summed up as such:

Times Reader runs on Microsoft's new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is built into the new Vista operating system and is included in the .Net 3.0 Framework service pack for Windows XP. If you are using Windows XP, the installer application will first install Net 3.0 Framework, a process that takes about ten minutes, and then install Times Reader, a process that takes about two minutes.

[ Click here for a big screen grab of Times Reader running natively on Vista RC1 ]

You can register for and download the free Times Reader here.

Here's my take:

As usability guru Jakob Nielsen said once, imagine if iTunes was only a browser app, and how limited it would be if so.

Well, for reading online I think most sites have a long way to go. Nytimes.com has stepped forward, or back (depending on how you view it), with a layout that steals a page from newspaper design, with its columns and multiple entry points. It's a format we understand.

Now Times Reader does it in a much sweeter app, which acts like a continually updating newspaper front page, and section pages. From the story within the app, users are able to e-mail URLs, which link to the same story at nytimes.com. (In other words, it is fed by the nytimes.com Web site, it seems.)

But the main gain here is in core readability. Apparent vector-based rendering makes text and photos scale up much better. And I like that my reading experience is not jumbled in with every other window or tab that may be open, and publishers must love that, with affinity a golden goal. They must also like Windows system tray icon, which allows access to Reader.

I'm most interested in what is ommitted in Reader, but which could be much better than on the Web: community/forums and personalization, such as personal special builder/aggregator, or gathering on topics, etc.

For community, an app, could handle logins more seamlessly than cookies and allow a blurring of lines between quick comments and deeper forums on topics.

And all praise to AJAX and related for bringing app-like functionality to browsers, but I'd think an app will just do it better and offer a richer experience on all the above.

Remember: What would iTunes be like if isolated to a browser?

The question of the browser's universality must enter the discussion of replacing the browser, and there is hope there too: Adobe's Flex, which some publishers, such as afr.com, have jumped on to deliver next-gen mediums (and clamp down on paid access). Afr.com has replaced its Web site with an Flex/Flash-based desktop reader, which offers a much richer experience.)

If newspaper publishers, for example, shared a reader tech, one could imagine a continually updating virtual newsstand.

Have a play with Times Reader and talk back to me. Look out browser?

Posted by Mike Barton on October 5, 2006 12:30 PM

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