Beta releases are bad for us. Besides encouraging most of the Web-enabled systems in the world to run buggy, unfinished software, there is a bigger issue - they numb us. Let's take a look at the evolution of Navigator 4.0 and a couple of striking issues that have popped up recently.
Looking back on this column's archives, I was a bit surprised to realize that we had our first look at Netscape's "new version" more than six months ago. That first preview release had some interesting new features, as well as a lot of promises of what was to come. Slowly, over the course of weeks and months, we saw four more previews of this technology, each a bit more interesting - and a bit more stable. Navigator finally got stylesheets, then layout control through positioning. And dynamic HTML (or at least Netscape's version of it) began to mature. Eventually, downloadable fonts were included, as well as MIME-based HTML via email.
And then came the big day. Netscape readied the enormous bandwidth, cranked up the marketing engine, and jumped headfirst into the "Great Web Tune-Up." And you know what? It's hard to really care. Yes, Navigator 4.0 is a pretty good browser. Yes, it has some interesting features. And yes, there are some problems (you can bet we'll dig into those in the coming weeks). But we've been dealing with these issues and ideas for half a year now, and frankly, I'm a little apathetic about the whole thing.
These days we watch the painstaking development process unfold before our eyes. Every move the browser giants make is carefully reported in the trade press. It's almost as if we've been sitting next to the director of a film, watching the entire production process. Now, watching the released movie is more of a chore than anything else.
But I digress. Go get your new browser. Fire it up. And if there's something you don't like, don't worry. We should be seeing a beta version of Navigator 5.0 any day now....
Tortoise and hare?
Say, that reminds me. Wasn't there supposed to be some competition to Navigator 4.0? What on earth is going on up in Redmond these days?
We've been talking all along about the 4.0 browser versions, almost counting on the fact that Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator would be racing neck and neck through the first half of 1997. So what's up?
Despite the marketing blitz and "First Looks" that have been going on since before IE 3 shipped last summer, we've only seen one preview release from Microsoft. And that one was aimed squarely at developers and IS managers; it was a proof-of-concept for the new technology, at best.
Of course, I can understand the demands. Microsoft has made some pretty hefty promises - integration of the Web into the operating system, a dynamically accessible document object model, live desktop components. Netscape has created a pretty solid browser, and their Communicator suite of network applications is beginning to rival the competition in areas like mail, collaboration, and scheduling.
But will Microsoft's offering be that much better than the now-officially released Navigator 4.0?
It's going to have to be. By playing the marketing game of corresponding version numbers, Microsoft is now officially "behind," according to the general public. And in the hyperspeed development of the Web, weeks turn into eons and product life cycles are measured quarterly.
In industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and VCRs, timing and marketing have consistently played a bigger role than quality and usefulness. Will Microsoft's investment in development pay off against Netscape's race to market?
Only time will tell....
