REDWOOD SHORES, California -- Most gamers probably think they need a Web browser for their PlayStation2 consoles like they need a bullet in the head during a game of Quake.
The lack of a keyboard, the normally flickery nature of text on TV and the fact that one typically sits a few feet away from the screen when playing a video game -- all this is enough to make the Web the last thing you'd want to do with your brand new PS2, right?
But after a few minutes of using the Ergobrowser, the only-available-in-Japan browser for the PS2, surfing the Web on a video game console feels very natural, as easy as using a PC. You could do it all day.
For the most part, the text doesn't flicker; there's a slight twinkle to some of the brighter colors, but you get used to it. Navigating is simple, too, as the interface is very much like that of a game, with lots of pop-up menus and graphical cues to let you know what you're doing. Entering text with the on-screen keypad is less cumbersome than it sounds, and you can always add a standard USB keyboard to your PS2 to make things easier.
The company behind the Ergobrowser is Planetweb, which beat out tough competition from Access -- the Japanese firm that makes browsers for the wildly popular i-Mode cell phones -- in order to make the browser the first Internet application available for the PS2.
And this, said Planetweb CEO Ken Soohoo, is just the beginning.
Surfing the Web on TV is a years-old practice, though, and many people already do it through WebTV. But Soohoo insists that simply allowing "surfing" on the PS2 won't be enough to captivate gamers, and he's careful to draw distinctions between his product and WebTV.
The difference, he said during an interview on Thursday at Planetweb's headquarters, is that "our system doesn't look like a browser. It has the look and feel of a gaming experience, and that's something that gamers want."
Indeed, Soohoo envisions a future in which gaming and Webbing are seamlessly intertwined.
"The browser would be a graphical object within the game," he said, "so characters could walk through a room and, say, see a TV in one corner. You could go over to the TV screen and it would have the Web on it. There could be hints, tricks, cheats, chat -- it would be a live site that a real webmaster is changing all the time. It would bolster the best part of gaming, which is the community aspect of it."
But that's in the future, Soohoo said, meaning a year or so from now. Currently, Planetweb's main product is "just a browser," which Soohoo says with some irony. He means that getting Web content on TV -- reducing flicker, making navigation easy, etc. -- isn't an easy feat, especially when you're competing with some of the biggest names in the business. Making "just a browser" isn't something to sneeze at.
"But we're used to it," Soohoo said.
Sit down with him for an hour or so and Soohoo will tell you hundreds of stories illustrating "why we're cooler," stories about how Planetweb has repeatedly been faster at producing Internet applications for consumer electronics products.
Even if you mention the biggest name in the software industry, Soohoo responds with the unflinching confidence of a gamer. Microsoft may have won the PC browser war, he acknowledged, but they "haven't won a battle against us," he said.
When Sega launched its Dreamcast video game console, for instance, it had a deal with Microsoft to ship a Dreamcast version of Internet Explorer at launch time. "But eight weeks before the drop deadline, Microsoft told them they couldn't get it ready in time, so Sega came to us. And we were able to do it in time."
"We have a significant advantage over the big guys," he added. "The proof is in the delivery."
