*I have a problem with that term because it implies that journalists aren’t and shouldn’t be politically engaged and civic minded. I suppose there is an ethical argument to be made about “objectivity,” but I think objectivity is an impossible notion and should be replaced by fairness.

I think niche browsers are a bad idea to start with. Browsers are commodities. For most computer users, their browser of choice is the one that came installed by default on their computer. Inertia, technophobia, and a lack of pressing need means they just use what’s there. Even getting advanced computer users to switch browsers requires a compelling reason to do so. Flock, for example, still isn’t particularly mainstream, despite it’s brilliant integration of services like MySpace and Facebook.

Ultimately, all anyone needs — dare I say wants — a browser to do is display whatever content she or he is trying to view, display it quickly, display it well, and not crash with any sort of regularity.

But let’s say Blackbird is an even more brilliant reworking of what is, in my opinion, the world’s greatest browser. Your problem is still one of positioning. African Americans Are. Too. Diverse. To. Be. A. Single. Market. Niche.

You would think black people would know this better than anyone. Though perhaps my assumption is just as faulty as yours. Maybe all 36 million of us really are interested in the same dozen or so sites, but I doubt it.

The problem with this sort of broad-based ethnic marketing — and I’ll add to that gender marketing — is that it tries to fit this wide range of ages, incomes, regions, nationalities, religious affiliations, and races* into this single, one-size-doesn’t-really-fit-all box.

What speaks to me will not speak to my senior-citizen parents. Gospel-themed anything will not work for my cousin who wasn’t raised in the church and converted to Islam a decade ago. Injecting Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King into the conversation won’t resonate with Black Caribbean or African immigrants who came here by choice, some not all that long ago. Hell, there are even subtle differences of interest and experience between black folks who went to HBCUs and predominantly white universities.

In other words, what you think is of interest to African Americans probably isn’t of interest to most of us. What’s more, the most techno-literate black folks — you know, those computer users who are sophisticated enough to download and install another browser — already know how to use Firefox and Google. Some of us even use Macs. And while I wish y’all success, the early buzz indicates that almost nobody, not even the black folks, are digging this browser.

Love,

Tiffany

Elsewhere

• Blackbird Is A Custom Browser For African Americans Built On Top Of Mozilla on TechCrunch.com
• Blackbird, The First Web Browser for African-Americans by Karsh on BlackGayBlogger.com
• Blackbird: The African-American Web Browser from GreasyGuide.com
• Blackbird: The African American Web Browser and Philanthropy on the Web From Blog Around Harlem
• Blackbird: I was not waiting for this moment to arise by Cecily

*P.S.: I say “races,” even though I’m talking about black folks, because in the U.S., black ancestry legally and usually culturally means you’re racially black. This applies even if you are of mixed parentage, as Malcolm Gladwell is, or have a non-black grandparent, such as Ming and Aoki Lee (Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee’s daughters).

* P.P.S.: This is also some bullsh*t

When it comes to Mac and Linux versions, this means that our goal is not to just “port” a Windows application to these other platforms–rather, our goal is to deliver Chromium’s innovative, Google-style user interface without rough edges on any of them. Chromium’s overall design has been multi-platform from the start, but we are also committed to getting the details right for users on each platform. For an application that most of us “live in” most of the day, rough edges in the user experience or operating system integration are like having a stone in your shoe no matter how well the rest of the product works.

Update: I updated this post with more about Chrome’s features and some related links.

I may craft this into a better post later, but for now, I wanted to share some initial thoughts and observations about Google’s Chrome browser, which was released earlier today.

Keep in mind that I’m rolling in true nerd style here: blogging at LAX on my T-Mobile HotSpot collection connection waiting to board my flight to Atlanta. Expect typos, incomplete thoughts and possible profanity because I’m in that kind of mood.

I have only spent a few short hours with the browser, but I can safely say that it may be a game changer. Chrome, which is based on WebKit, has super speedy load times and man-handles JavaScript. I don’t think Google Chrome is using SquirrelFish just yet. But I fully expect that a final release (or at least a later beta) will.

What I’m digging

• Slim, trim interface. Google got the interface right. It’s streamlined and simplified with only what you need to see at any given time. Other options (like your bookmarks bar) can be turned on and off as desired.
• Speed. I’m running this on a Windows XP Parallels virtual machine. Still fast. As f*ck.
• Dead-simple plug-in installs. Chrome realized that I needed to install Flash. One click and a few minutes later, the player was downloaded, installed, and ready to use.
• Most visited sites: Similar to Opera‘s Speed Dial feature, but automated. Chrome automatically saves and organizes the sites you visit most and loads them as your home page when you start the browser (above photo).
• Combined search address bar. Consider it a lesson learned from Firefox, which despite having separate boxes for the URL and web search, will actually search the web if you type a keyword in the address bar. Google Chrome dispenses with the separate boxes. You want to search the web? Type in the address / search bar and hit enter.
• Incognito surfing. It’s similar to Safari’s private browsing feature. Incognito lets you fire up a separate browsing window that gets rid of cookies and your surfing history when you close it.
• Application shortcuts Think of it as a site-specific browser, along the lines of Fluid or Mozilla’s Prism extension. Application shortcuts load separately from the Chrome browser window, and and offers a focused environment for web applications such as GMail or Zoho Writer.
• The nerdiest of nerdy sh*t. Yeah, Chrome lets you tweak your security settings and such. And yes, it has developer tools that don’t require extensions, or special configuration commands. But it’s killer nerd feature is Task Manager. Yes, Google Chrome lets you see which of your tabs and/or plug-ins is sucking up your CPU usage.
• Crash protection. Flash might crash, but it won’t take your browser down with it.

What I’m not digging

• Combined search address bar. Firefox’ keyword search is basically a Google “I’m feeling lucky” search. I like that Firefox removes the Google page middle man. Chrome, conversely, takes you to a Google search results page.
• No really. That’s the only thing I don’t like so far.

Now when looked at individually, there’s not much about Chrome that hasn’t been done before. Unified search bar? Firefox (sort of). Single-site browsing (or site-specific browsing)? Firefox + Prism. Frequently visited pages? Opera Speed Dial.

The innovation, however, comes in the aggregate. No browser available today has an interface that is more thoughtfully-designed than Chrome. Period. Google rounded-up the best browser trends and innovations of the last few years, sprinkled them with G-Dust, and released them as one hell of a browser.

I am surprised, however, that Google’s Chrome is only available for Windows, considering it’s based on the WebKit project — the same software that powers Apple’s Safari browser. I’m also curious why they chose a WebKit core over a Mozilla core, considering the history of collaboration and sharing between Google and the Mozilla Corporation.

For what it’s worth, Google says, that Mac OS X and Linux versions are coming soon. And I hope by “coming soon” they mean “next week.” In the meantime, Windows users can download Chrome and put it through its paces.

Related

• The Pencil Project, Prism and the browser as platform
• JavaScript in Firefox 3.1 will be wicked fast
• Essential Firefox Extensions
• My new favorite Firefox extensions
• Google chrome’s FAQ for web developers

It takes advantage of Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine for an easy-to-use application for making layouts. You can import bitmap images, add rich text or plain text, and when you’re done, export your drawing as a PNG file.

One downside: it runs inside of Firefox. You have to start Firefox in order to use Pencil. It is, however, free and open source. I used it (briefly) on a Mac running Leopard (10.5.4) with no problems. It’s also been tested on GNU/Linux, Windows XP and Vista.

Prism and other single-site / site-specific browsers

The richness of the Pencil Project made me think about the browser as an application environment. And that brings me to Prism (formerly WebRunner), Mozilla’s single-site browser project.

Prism — available as its own package and as a Firefox extension — lets you turn any web site into a quasi-standalone application.

At first glance, a single-site browser seems pointless — dude, just open another tab. But I find that the minimal GUI of an SSB really lets me focus on the task at hand. It’s particularly nice when used with web applications such as Google or Zoho, or blogging interfaces.

Prism isn’t the only single-site browser available. Mac users, can check Fluid, which is based on WebKit/Safari. Windows users have Bubbles.

Browser as platform = The future of applications?

Today, you still need an operating system on which to run Firefox and Prism. But is there room for a super-minimal OS with a Gecko-based (or WebKit-based, etc.) GUI? I’m thinking about one that runs web applications in a single-site browser (gOS is close, as is the iPhone) and still allows for richer applications such as the Pencil Project (Flock skims the surface of this). As both browsers and the languages we use to develop web sites become more powerful and feature-rich, (when?) will the browser truly become the operating system, rather than run on top of it?

Related

• Recommended: “From Browser to Platform: Mozilla Rises”
• Bubbles, a single-site browser for Windows
• Fluid, a single-site browser for Mac OS X
• Prism, a cross-platform, single-site browser and Firefox extension

[Pencil Project found via WebAppers]