3D Web Browser Draws Lukewarm Review 218
GreyGoo writes "The media release claims 'Internet surfers will be able to walk through their favourite websites as if they are characters in a computer game with the launch of the world's first 3D browser in Australia today.' However a review from someone who has actually tested the software raises important questions about the worth of the product considering the competing social and 3D products, and that sites have to be hand-crafted in order to truly support the new browser." A browser tied to a social networking scheme seems like a recipe for supreme annoyance.
Why... (Score:4, Interesting)
...must developers continue to inflict us with the 3D interface meme? Time and time again these "wouldn't it be cool if..." ideas turn out to be entirely crappy.
Who wants hand gestures instead of a mouse? Someone who uses a computer for 10 seconds at a time on a conference stage.
Who wants to have to wander around a rendered landscape to visit only the sites some software has chosen for them? My grandparents. No, wait, not even them.
People need to quit wasting cash developing crappy ideas, and spend some time generating GOOD ideas to develop.
Re:How is this a first? (Score:4, Interesting)
VRML enabled browsers have not only been around for years, but also dedicated VRML browsers; I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but there was a MUD client back in around '97 that not only did VRML mud rendering, it also had a integrated web/VRML browser.
it's going to bug the crap out of me until I remember what it was called now.
Compuserve did it too. (Score:4, Interesting)
I liked it better back in the 90's (Score:3, Interesting)
Stuff like Snoswell's cyberterm environment were much cooler the first time around. This is just the same old "tack a 3d setting on to fundamentally 2d data for no good reason" like html-to-vrml browsers. You want social browsing, add a freaking IRC client to your browser that autojoins rooms named after the url.
Either break entirely and do something new that requires 3d to interact with data that can not be properly represented in 2d, or integrate the third dimension in a non-obtrusive yet useful manner. Photos(currently a 2d medium) and the photosynth point cloud(3d) is decent example of the latter. If I could think of a good example of the former, I'd make it:)
Already out and called Second Life (Score:5, Interesting)
Really, this is all Second Life is. A 3D World Wide Web. Realms are handled by different servers. You can go to Dell or PG and see 3D models of their products. When I want to chat with tech support, I *could* go to the Dell store and do a voice chat with the Dell support guy (If they had support manning their page.) The voice chat in Second Life is pretty neat.
There are plenty of people who have products for sell in Second life. They are displayed in 2D on walls in some places, but most have the actual product sitting there on the floor which you can try before you buy.
In the past, there has been a 3D weather room where you could watch the radar in 3D. That's down last I checked.
RADAR is something that would truly shine in 3D. Not only see an X/Y view of where the jet is, but also Z with Z being altitude. If we had a 3D display too that would even be better.
I think this is something that once you start using it, like dual monitors, you really see why it's so much better. You'll find easier ways to do your work. Especially if I have better than 1024x768 graphics. If I could scroll certain windows into my systems into the background with high resolution, I could keep them in my peripheral and switch to them when I see something alerting.