Think of the platform, not the browser

Chris Messina made my day today because he did a great job of running down why the browser has issues and sparked a fun conversation with a lot of smart people. The 50 minute video Chris does isn't something I can do justice to here, but luckily he provides his thoughts in bullet format over on the blog. He has two main areas as I see it. One is the platform nature of Mozilla; how it fits into the ecosystem of rich internet applications, and what the plan is as browsers become less important. The other is the open source nature of Mozilla, something I'm not really qualified to speak on, so I'll leave it.

The browser isn't going to die any time soon, but I think Chris makes an interesting point when he talks about the Mozilla platform as opposed to Firefox the browser. Platforms are going to become increasingly important to the web, and we're seeing some advanced platforms evolve as we interface with data from different places. This is one of the reasons I think Microsoft and Adobe are so far ahead in the entire software game - they've built up great platforms. The platforms run on a variety of devices and allow you to deliver a variety of experiences.

The browser can be part of a platform, and in some cases a very central part. But in the rush to put all of our applications on the web, we started to place too much emphasis on the browser and pushed it to do too much. All of the pieces fit together in different areas of the platform, but trying to put everything in the browser isn't a logical way to go. Is the browser a good way to access information on a television? No way, but a rich internet application can be. I love the idea of going back to the browser as a more lightweight, user centric tool for browsing the web. But when it comes to delivering applications or providing content that is heavily interactive, the browser isn't a good fit. There are other parts of "the platform" that are made for that.

I think Mozilla should focus on its platform more. Microsoft has a great platform which reaches across a number of devices and services. Adobe has done a fantastic job of creating a platform that is cross platform and becoming more open all the time. On both of these platforms you can deliver a great experiences, applications and tools. Giving developers the right infrastructure for their requirements is a great thing, and that's the strength of a platform. The browser is an important part of that, but it shouldn't be the platform. Chris nailed it.