We are overwhelmed with the response from our first post on the Dream Browser project.

To follow up, we have a couple of small mockups of 1) A better way to look at Bookmarks, and 2) How you might go about viewing videos.

A Better Way of Looking at Bookmarks

We have CoverFlow in iTunes, we have it in the Finder, where next? Yep, the Browser.

CoverFlow is a controversial concept - people either love it or hate it. One could argue that CoverFlow makes sense in iTunes as you can view all of your music just like the ol' days by flipping through your virtual CD covers. One could also argue that it makes sense in the Finder because you can view all of your documents with a scaled down instant preview without even having to open them.

 However, there are others who may argue that CoverFlow is an over-engineered,  graphics hungry, time wasting piece of eye candy.

 I must admit I don't use CoverFlow terribly often in the Finder - it is useful for pictures, PSDs, and videos, but when I get to my Applications folder, CoverFlow serves very little purpose.

Hang on a minute, though - when was the last time you browsed through your internet history? How long did it take to find what you were looking for? It's true - currently, internet browser history sucks. To make a start, things need to be more visual.

Introducing CoverFlow into the Browser makes perfect sense - whenever you navigate to a web page, the Browser could capture a screen shot of that page at a smaller resolution of, say, 640x480. These images would then be stored in a directory that was easily accessible by the user. When browsing history, any item deleted would also remove the thumbnail from the directory.

Add to this an advanced method of search. When you currently search your history or bookmarks, the browser compares your search term to the URL and title of each page. A far superior way of finding what you want would be to index every site you have navigated to, so when you search, your query will be compared to more than just the title and URL, but also the very contents of every page, just like Spotlight does with your documents.

How to View Videos

In Sebastiaan's original post, he mentioned the archaic way of viewing video that is still the norm on the web.

 Breaking content apart has been something of a challenge for years on the web - separating content from design with HTML and CSS, but not much has been done on the user side to aid separation of content such as text, video, and pictures.

If we were able to identify different media (which we are), we could organise, for instance, all of the videos you have viewed in the last day into a list, and the same for photos, and maybe even maps*.

 The image above shows a simple, iTunes style list of videos. These videos could be QuickTime, YouTube, or any other video content provider theoretically. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to restrict the classification of content as"Video" within the Browser to avoid Flash sites being organised into the same category. Restricting the classification of video could be done by filtering files from certain domains that are between a range of media sizes.

So, for example, if the domain of the video file is one of the following "media-site-1.com; media-site-2.com; media-site-3.com;" AND the filetype is one of the following ".flv; .mov; .avi; .swf" AND the filesize is  between "X mb" and "Y mb" THEN class content as "Video"

 *Maps - that one literally just came to me - perhaps with a plug in we could gain better ways of keeping track of maps within the browser, and relating those maps to other information, such as contacts, web addresses, and more. 

 Just a few more thoughts, please keep the feedback coming!

 I might upload the Illustrator file I made for the screens I have been producing so you guys can visualise some of your ideas if you want.

Thanks, oh and see the previous post if you're not sure what this is all about.

The other day, Sebastiaan de With of Cocoia wrote a blog post entitled "My Dream Browser".

This immediately grabbed my attention and reminded me of a few ideas I had a while ago for changes in the browser space.

Here is one of the images he posted to visualise his ideas:

The internet browser market is currently moving quickly in terms of new competition with the release of Safari for Windows, and Firefox 3 in beta, but in terms of design and UI it has been a while since any major changes took place.

The problem with current browsers is they are not designed for the new ways we are using the internet - RSS feeds are a late addition in the whole scheme of things, downloads are resigned to a small window in the background, and other media such as video and photos are still embedded into pages with no easy way of cutting through the clutter.

With this growing multitude of content flying around, perhaps a more organised approach would enable users to collect and share information online easily and efficiently.

Looking at iTunes, the most popular media software in the world, media is organised into groups of Music, Videos, TV Shows, Purchased Content, and then User Defined selection (Playlists). What if a similar approach was taken to the web? It would make sense - imagine being able to see all of the videos you have watched in the last week in a single list, with the ability to play any of them all from one page. Imagine you are downloading a 90 page PDF while also downloading a new app from your friend's site, as well as downloading the latest movie trailer from the Quicktime site and being able to monitor all your downloads, and see what type of media each of them are, without even leaving the current window.

That's our dream browser.

We also had some UI ideas of our own, some of which we are working on bringing into GoSquared itself sometime in the future.

You may remember, a while ago we wondered "why isn't CoverFlow in Safari?", well we still wonder, and it would definitely be in the browser of our dreams. CoverFlow wasn't the only idea we had though...

Take this scenario:

I find an image I really like on a page and want to share it with a friend or a colleague. Currently, I copy and paste the image into my favourite email client (Mail), fill out the "To:" field with his or her name, and maybe leave a little comment in the "Subject:" field, then maybe another little "Yo, check this out" in the body field, and then I hit send.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could do this:

Drag the image to my friend's name in the sidebar, and wait for it to arrive in his inbox.

The ability to do things like this would drastically improve the way people communicate ideas on a regular basis.

We have a few more ideas, and this blog post could run on for another few days, but for now we would love to hear what you guys and girls think.

We are actively working on the browser to make it a reality - Danny Greg from Crimson Sky Software is the lead developer on this project and he is just as passionate as we are about creating this awesome browser.

If you would like to help out, or have any ideas of your own, please let us know below!

Download the font, by Alex Emmer, here

In the mood for downloading? Try 77 Vector Buttons.

We want to make advertising better on GoSquared.

We have put together a really simple little survey that will take you less than 5 minutes to fill in.

We really want to hear from you guys and girls - we value your thoughts, criticisms, contributions, and all else!

Take the Survey now!

Many thanks,

The GoSquared Team

The demands for more juicy GoSquared content have been heard! Here, in all their vector quality, are 85 shining icons ready for your next design.

This particular icon set falls into the "window" category. Nothing to do with "Windows" the operating system, but the adjustment of windows, panes, and closure icons.

Have a play around, they're free as always, and you can do whatever you want with them.

Get the Adobe Illustrator CS2 File [450KB]

Don't have Adobe Illustrator? Download the SVG.

You might also like: 77 Vector Buttons, and 165 Vector Icons.

GoSquared is now on Twitter!

We hope to bring you more of our shorter news clips via our Twitter stream, to keep liquidicity devoted to the more important stuff like GoSquared, and Design.

We would love to hear what you think - a few of our readers disliked the increase in news stories (we were simply trying to get a bit more action on liquidicity), so we are trying to get the best of both worlds: more updates, but not to those who don't want them.

Tell us what you think.

Oh, and add us on Twitter if you're feeling particularly friendly

Thanks for sticking with GoSquared, we really appreciate it,

The GoSquared Team.

It has been a fun and successful 2 years, and are pleased to say we have reached our 2nd birthday without running into too many catastrophic problems.

A little summary of what we have achieved so far:

3 redesigns of the entire GoSquared site.

The launch of liquidicity, our blog dedicated to design and technology news.

The 3rd revision of Squares. Squares are the easiest and most attractive way to get seen online. Over the last 2 years we have devoted a huge proportion of our time into researching interfaces, advertising media, and working with other companies in the advertising industry. We have reached a point where GoSquared Squares is now more secure, faster, and easier to advertise with than ever before.

We feel Squares can get even better, though.

The trial beta of our desktop wallpaper site, 365Wallpapers. This was a service that provided you with a new wallpaper every day of the year. Over the last year we have devoted our efforts away from 365, but we are looking forward to bringing a drastically improved version of the service back later this year.

The launch of Discuss. Discuss is a great place for designers from all fields of the profession to talk about their industry, their works, and anything they want. We released Discuss earlier than we planned, hence the relative quietness so far. We hope to gain more traffic to Discuss very soon!

The launch of the GoSquared Control Panel. When you join GoSquared, you can now monitor your Squares with a simple, efficient control panel. You can also edit various details like your category, and purchase more time to get seen. With the update to the Control Panel, we also integrated GoSquared Members across all services: you only need to join GoSquared to gain membership to liquidicity, Discuss, and Squares. Of course, membership is 100% free!

And a whole lot of other little updates, like the addition of several About pages, the recent update to our Contact Us page, and the 29th revision of the GoSquared Homepage.

Today is the 3rd of February 2008. We have some great stuff that we hinted at last year, which has taken us slightly longer than we originally hoped. We think the extra time and effort will pay off, and look forward to seeing you again in the next few weeks to announce some truly great products.

Thanks,

The GoSquared Team