dirtyDogStink

Thoughts on tabbed browsing with MSN toolbar

Friday, June 10 2005

In case you didn't know, the latest MSN Toolbar release includes tabbed browsing.  This works with IE5 and IE6.  I used it all day yesterday and here are my thoughts...

Pros:

• There are tabs! =)
• Able to save a group of sites/tabs to My Tabs.
• Able to open my last set of viewed tabs.
• Seems pretty stable, I haven't had any crashes like Chris refers too.
• I'm able to view Spaces photo albums now within tabs (albums don't work in Avantbrowser).

Cons:

• Opening a new instance of IE instead of a new tab - when links are hard coded to open a new browser window (admittedly, something I have personal issues with, but that's a rant for another time) they are opened in a new instance of IE instead of just a new tab. 
• Same goes when you right-click on a link and select Open in New Window (my preferred method of opening new windows...I want control of how my browser acts).
• Cannot close tabs by double-clicking.
• Cannot customize mouse/tab actions.
• Switching between tabs is not 'seamless to the user' and causes IE to flicker like when you switch apps (i.e.: going from Outlook to IE) as if the screen is being reloaded.
• When switching tabs, you can briefly see another IE instance open up on the taskbar.  WTF?
• Cannot save different groups of tabs, only 1 group of sites saved in My Tabs.
• There are a few quick-keys for moving around tabs, but limited when compared to competitors.
• <edit> IE's place on the taskbar moves to the bottom (I put my taskbar on the right side of my monitor running vertically...the standard taskbar setup would put it to the far right).  This is irritating as hell for me because I have so many programs open I always open my first few apps in a specific order so I know right where to go for them.  Outlook, IE, Messenger, VS.Net and then whatever comes up next.  I realize it's anal, but I hate it when this order gets f'd up.

My overall impression...  It's nice to have the complete functionality of IE with tabs (finally!), but this feels, looks and runs like a beta.  It's comparable to Avantbrowser and Maxthon versions from a few years ago.  The product seems stable enough to use every day, but it's very, very feature poor when compared with it's current competition. 

I'm disappointed.  The tabbed browsing arena isn't mature by any means, but it's definitely past the 'everyone beta testing' stage.  This feels very rushed and incomplete.  They should have done a better job matching (or hey, even out-doing) the stuff that the competition apps are capable of.  Right now, it's more like "oh, what a cute little product you have there Sparky, come talk to me when you develop something that grown-ups will use."

~tod