The web has been relegated to second-class status with the rise of apps, but it's still very much alive. Companies like Microsoft, Google and Firefox are investing heavily in their web browsers to keep them relevant and make the web experience more like, well, an app.
The future of the web is the touch-based gestures like we use on our smartphones. Microsoft, in particular, has been promoting this vision since the launch of Windows 8. It is hardly alone in this endeavor, but Redmond is hyper-focused on ensuring websites look and feel a lot like the apps we use on our iPhones and Android devices. It is providing specific tools to developer, like the recent modern.IE tools to let developers test their web apps across different browsers, to make it happen.
That, along with Explorer's browser-specific functionality, is getting web developers excited.
"I'm more inspired by [Windows 8] than any other UI out there," said web developer Trent Walton of Paravelinc. "I think it's a shift in thinking. More and more people have been introduced to touch in the iPhone or iPad or any other device. They're just sort of used to it."
Apps are all the rage to be sure, but the web and the browsers we use to surf it still have a stronghold on people's day-to-day lives. Despite declarations that the web is dead, the amount of time we spend on the web -- about 70 minutes per day -- has not declined at all in recent years, according to data from mobile app analytics company Flurry.
"People are spending a huge percentage of the time on the web," said Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager of Internet Explorer. "It's our job to make our experience as great as possible. And we know that's going to be very touch-centric. There's a term in hockey called 'skating to where a puck will be.' We're doing that. IE10 is leading in this area."
Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 is a peek into this new web. When you use IE10 in the Windows 8 UI, there are no visible tabs or chrome. It's a full-screen experience that requires touch gestures to bring up windows and the address bar. Exclusive features like Flip Ahead allow you to literally flip through site pages with simple left and right swipes.
Developers find this especially exciting because it opens up new possibilities. The web page becomes a blank canvas, unencumbered by tabs and browser bars and other fixtures of conventional web browsers.
“Once we can reasonably, safely assume that people know that stuff is there,” Walton said, “it leaves more and more space for actual content."
Sure, it makes sense for Microsoft to push a touch-based web: Windows 8 is all about touch. But in a world where developers are racing to create the next big, billion-dollar iOS or Android app, focusing on pushing the web forward with touch -- normally used for navigating apps -- is certainly a different approach, especially to say, Apple. Cupertino is pushing apps above anything else. The state of Safari says it all. For Microsoft, however, who has fallen behind in the whole app ecosystem battle, it doesn't hurt to say to users, "Hey, but you have access to all of these awesome, touch-friendly web apps, too!"
One of the biggest complaints for people considering a Windows Phone or a Windows 8 tablet is that there just aren't enough available apps. But you never hear somebody say that they bought a mobile device because they love the web experience. Gavin says his goal is to make IE10 a selling point, much like Apple's jam-packed App Store.
"As Windows 8 matures, more devices enter the market, what will happen is the web starts to be one of the reasons why someone picks a Windows 8 device," he explained.
IE10 on Windows 8 includes unique features like pinning websites to the Start Screen much like we place app icons on our desktops. It essentially makes the websites indistinguishable from the apps they sit next to. And if that website has taken advantage of IE10's touch capabilities, then there is very little difference between the app and web experience. Take Pulse, a news aggregator app somewhat like Flipboard. The company has iOS and Android apps, but also a touch-enabled web app that functions just as beautifully as its native apps, especially in IE10. You can pinch-to-zoom, scroll through stories, and tap tabs made big enough for your fingers.
"Part of our larger focus is that the web really should be a first-class citizen right along apps on the devices we pick," Gavin said. "When you spend 40 to 50 percent time of your time on [the browser], it really shouldn't be second-class status. You really have to innovate in a few key areas -- like hardware acceleration, letting the browser tap into performance capabilities of the device. Another huge one for IE10 is touch. The web has not traditionally been designed or architected to be a touch web."
Although Microsoft is placing the biggest bet on touch, others are gambling that it is the future too. Several companies are exploring touch, especially for Windows 8. You can get Google Chrome, for example, as a Windows 8 application. It still provides tabs, but you can swipe between pages. It isn’t as smooth as IE10, but give it time. Google is enhancing the experience because there may be Chrome touchscreen devices coming soon.
This possible future of the web makes the browser wars of the past old news as companies like Microsoft and Google focus on optimizing their browsers for their particular devices. Chrome will provide the best experience on Chromebooks. IE10 will provide the best experience on Windows 8 machines. And Safari ... well, never mind Safari. Even Firefox has its web-run FirefoxOS.
“It's clear to us at Mozilla that HTML5 is the future of app development, and it's good to see other companies getting on board,” said Johnathan Nightingale, vice president of Firefox engineering. “The move away from proprietary, single-vendor platforms is a healthy thing for creators and consumers. Over the long run it's inevitable, but it takes some imagination to see it, especially for those with an interest in keeping things locked up.”
For Microsoft and Windows 8 in particular, touch is a viable future of the web. A touch-focused web could elevate web apps to the point where going mobile doesn’t mean developers and companies must build a native app. And browsing the web won't mean you have to sacrifice on design.
That doesn’t mean surfing the web will overshadow the elegance and ease of a well-designed app. But it does mean we’ll see less of a delineation between the two, and each will be tailored to what we need and want from the experience.
“It shouldn’t be about apps or web, it should be about the end experience,” Gavin says of the future. “When I have my new Windows 8 device, I shouldn’t have to feel like I just transitioned from an app to website or vice versa. I should just say that this is a gorgeous experience.”
