Two days ago, I wrote about how today’s browsers are not fast enough for site that using many JavaScript. If you using the browser for opening many sites, that’s even worse. A problem in one site can affect the other site. Say you write a document using Google Docs and browse other site which unexpectedly has some problem in its script. You may lose some valuable information due to this behavior.
This problem is recognized by some people. That’s why Mozilla creates Prism aka WebRunner. The idea is simple, take browser’s renderer (btw, that’s Gecko for Forefox) and create a new application using the same renderer. This application is just another browser, but it is limited to browse to a unique site. So for example, you can create two applications, one for browsing Google Reader and the other just for browsing GMail. The advantage is pretty obvious. Your application will simply run faster due to smaller memory footprint and there is no need to worry that it’s forced down (except if the site itself has some errors, of course).
I was pretty skeptical when I heard this at the first time. Of course you have smaller memory footprint for each application. But if you combine all memory footprints of every application, then it will bigger that using standard browser. So at that time, I forget Prism without even trying it (and the fact that it’s not even Beta stage was the other reason).
That’s until I found a same application that uses the same principle but using the renderer of Safari. The name of the application is Fluid. This time, I eager to try it out and I think this is the quick answer the previous browser’s problem. In the long term, it’s obviously great to have better and faster browser.
Fluid convinces me that the reason of using site-specific-browser is not merely speed and smaller memory footprint. In fact, I found that I become more productive by using it. What’s the reason?
I believe that tab navigation is good idea. Yes, it’s good idea… for browsing. But for site that you open every one in a while, this is a distraction. If you get a new email, you have to open the email tab. After you read the email, you go back to the other tab to continue your browsing. And this is always happen again and again.
If you use several windows, the problem is still that they are all working in the same process, you’ll still have problem if a site has a bug. But other than that, the navigation is also not clear. You will have the same icon of all windows that you open, so if you open several windows, you will find that it’s pretty difficult to find in which window is your email opened?
Using site specific browser means that each site uses different processes and you can change the icon of the application. This is a pretty big usability advantage and you must try it yourself to be convinced.
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