| There are lots of things that I could do in a web browser, but still don't, yet. Old habits die hard; that's part of the problem. But also, we're still not there yet, AFAIK, turning browser apps into applications. Sure, I can tweet a link to everyone to video chat with me. But how well will that work if my browser isn't running when they call? Skype is an always-on native application that doesn't steal a slot in the dock/taskbar when it's not in active use, and also just claims its reasonable slice of memory and doesn't generally go up from there. I keep it running, and people call me or IM occasionally. My browsers... I generally have Chrome & Firefox and sometimes Opera up at varying times during the day (different browsers because I don't like mixing business with personal cookies, and because Facebook gets its own browser entirely), and they're all closed down sometimes. They suck up lots of memory (my tabs tend to accumulate rapidly until it gets out of hand and I do a cull), and it's pretty frequent that some site's JavaScript gets a bit wild and steals too much processor/bandwidth as well, so I shut them down whenever I can. So how do I use some browser tab to be always available for calls and IM? If the right browser & tab are open, how will it even notify me when someone's IM'ing me? How annoying will it be to find the right tab, to respond? The GMail interface is superior to Thunderbird for email, but I still pull two GMail accounts into Thunderbird (along with others hosted elsewhere) because it shows the little envelope in the tray when I have new mail, and I can mouse-over that to see what it is. Well, and I can still search my entire message history (for 6 diversely-hosted accounts), write emails, etc., while offline, and don't have to provide Google access to my mail server. Etc.. Maybe there are good solutions to all of these problems? But I can't go changing all of my habits every time someone tells me "there's a new way!" -- I have work to do. Generally when I try, I get burned and have to change back. Addendum -- I'm a technical user. I'm not completely ignorant of the possibilities. So take my reluctance to change, and multiply that by some large factor for everyone who finally got the hang of using Skype to keep in touch with their family overseas.... [immediate edit: I do know that some of these problems are solved; but I need all of them, or something so much better to my general workflow that it's worth the effort to switch and lose whatever I'm losing.] |
You're right in that some of the problems are solved (I get native notifications of new email in Gmail via Web Notifications and a Chrome plugin that turns them in inotify (or whatever) notifications, and the indicator on my app'd tab in Chrome changes from zero -> one).
I do appreciate the feedback, these were conditions I hadn't even considered and need to account for.