Browster, a San Francisco-based start-up is expected to launch a new version of its software sometime this week. Scott Milener, CEO of Browster had indicated that the company will launch a new version of its software in an interview with C/Net’s Rafe Needleman.
The company makes plugins for Firefox and Internet Explorer, which allow you to preview the next link you are about to click on. Sort of like a preview in a pop-up screen. The plugins work on Windows for now.
The new version, according to the video chat with Needleman, is going to have some built in functionality for MySpace users so people can preview “friends” before actually getting friendly with them.
These are pretty interesting utilities. I for one have been using Cooliris, because it has Mac/Safari support; has no adds, and is just a better user experience. It also has right click support, which is good, now that I have a Windows machine running on my Mac. Still, downloading an executable file, as in the case of Browster makes me a tad queasy - so for now sticking with Cooliris.
5 comments so far
4:18 PM PT
I’m running the 2.0 version of Browster on Firefox right now, and it’s terrific! Fast, no ads, and a great UI.
4:53 PM PT
I hope it works with Mac-FireFox. That would be nice, since one could do a head-to-head comparison of the two offerings.
7:31 PM PT
Om,
thanks for mentioning Browster. Yes, you are right we are launching Browster 2.0 Monday with a unique new custom view for MySpace. We believe users will demand greater ‘personalized viewing’ control for the web. Users asked us for a different view of pages to be displayed than if you click through, expecially on sites like MySpace where the pages are complex and many people just want to quickly browse through profiles.
Note that Browster 2.0 does not display ads (acutally Browster 1.x has not since February). We are including a search box and will soon present other valuable and monetizable content for revenue.
We would love to produce a Mac version and have it in the product plans.
Scott Milener
CEO
Browster
3:20 AM PT
Hi Scott,
the idea might be a good one, but I have serious performance problems on my machine and especially when crawling blogs (with a lot of text links) I find the popups really annoying. But I have one question - I read about your company being supported by various investors - if this is right can I ask you for your business model? How will you make money at all?
No offense.
Cheers, mil
8:23 AM PT
Om and ScottM, please help me out here.
You plan to make money by including a search box in the pop-up window.
Last week, Google announced that it is paying Fox Interactive Media a minimum of $900 million in cash for exclusive web search rights on MySpace and other FIM properties. And, this week Browster announces how it is going to siphon off some of that search traffic for its own benefit.
Particularly with MySpace’s exclusionary attitudes towards third-party developers, why won’t they try and stop you?
Leave a Comment