6 ms·

>desktops and laptops, while theoretically more powerful multitasking tools, have been left behind >Browsing and chatting simultaneously is cumbersome and inef

>desktops and laptops, while theoretically more powerful multitasking tools, have been left behind >Browsing and chatting simultaneously is cumbersome and inefficient now, as you need to switch between tabs when responding to a message Or, since we all have widescreen monitors (and often multiple monitors) you could just have your messengers in a window next to the browser instead of a sidebar within the browser. Seems like a solution looking for a problem. What good is allowing messengers to reside within your browser other than that it lets the people who are tracking your browsing habits simultaneously spy on your messages?

H4CK3RM4N 9y ago
At this point your browser is your OS(with Blink as the kernel, Chrome(ium) as the init/package manager and Opera as the DE), so something like this does makes sense. I just wish that web developers would realise how terrible of an idea this trend is.
- toxican 9y ago
  It's almost always some ass hole above the developers. We're not idiots and we know what does/doesn't work. But we don't always make the decisions.
ryu2k2 9y ago
>What good is allowing messengers to reside within your browser other than that it lets the people who are tracking your browsing habits simultaneously spy on your messages? I highly doubt third parties have access to the messenger tab. It's a neat addition that works well for people who browse in one fullscreenized window.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
> Or, since we all have widescreen monitors (and often multiple monitors) you could just have your messengers in a window next to the browser instead of a sidebar within the browser. Except that - unless you're on a tiling WM on Linux - your window manager sucks, and solution like this is barely usable (hard to keep the windows properly aligned, hard to have them simultaneously on the foreground when other windows come into the mix, etc. etd.). I agree that solutions like that shouldn't be in browsers. But it's cheaper this way for the app vendors...
- swiley 9y ago
  None of your windows have to be big enough for alignment to be a problem. Even on my small netbook I can fit three 80 column windows of text next to each other easily.
- tnone 9y ago
  I'm on OSX and it magnetically snaps windows together as they get close. Makes it easy to divide ad hoc. As for messengers, what would be revolutionary is if you could actually use all these fragmented messengers in a single app.
  - ronjouch 9y ago
    > "As for messengers, what would be revolutionary is if you could actually use all these fragmented messengers in a single app." http://meetfranz.com/ http://meetfranz.com/ does this in a maybe user-friendlier way than Pidgin (at the cost of a more shallow "integration" due to most of the supported services being non-standard, basically you're running all the clients in one place). It doesn't "remember which of the messaging apps each of my friends prefers, and routes messages appropriately" as requested below by marcus_holmes, but maybe it can start scratching your itch.
  - wwfrn 9y ago
    I have slack (via their irc gateway), facebook messanger, and google chat/hangouts unified in pidgin. I could pay pushbullet to get sms in there too!
  - marcus_holmes 9y ago
    This. So much this. I want an app that remembers which of the messaging apps each of my friends prefers, and routes messages appropriately. If I block someone, it blocks them on all the apps I've ever talked to them on. I think I use over 5 messaging apps (including sms) on a regular basis. Too many.
    - brianwawok 9y ago
      Considering most apps these days are a closed api that sounds terrible to code.
k_bx 9y ago
> Or, since we all have widescreen monitors (and often multiple monitors) you could just have your messengers in a window next to the browser instead of a sidebar within the browser. And have all links from external app open in a window depending on which was the last one you've used, and having to open links from chat and then drag them to the main browser window. No thanks.

H4CK3RM4N 9y ago

At this point your browser is your OS(with Blink as the kernel, Chrome(ium) as the init/package manager and Opera as the DE), so something like this does makes sense. I just wish that web developers would realise how terrible of an idea this trend is.

toxican 9y ago
It's almost always some ass hole above the developers. We're not idiots and we know what does/doesn't work. But we don't always make the decisions.

ryu2k2 9y ago

>What good is allowing messengers to reside within your browser other than that it lets the people who are tracking your browsing habits simultaneously spy on your messages? I highly doubt third parties have access to the messenger tab. It's a neat addition that works well for people who browse in one fullscreenized window.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

> Or, since we all have widescreen monitors (and often multiple monitors) you could just have your messengers in a window next to the browser instead of a sidebar within the browser. Except that - unless you're on a tiling WM on Linux - your window manager sucks, and solution like this is barely usable (hard to keep the windows properly aligned, hard to have them simultaneously on the foreground when other windows come into the mix, etc. etd.). I agree that solutions like that shouldn't be in browsers. But it's cheaper this way for the app vendors...

swiley 9y ago
None of your windows have to be big enough for alignment to be a problem. Even on my small netbook I can fit three 80 column windows of text next to each other easily.
tnone 9y ago
I'm on OSX and it magnetically snaps windows together as they get close. Makes it easy to divide ad hoc. As for messengers, what would be revolutionary is if you could actually use all these fragmented messengers in a single app.
- ronjouch 9y ago
  > "As for messengers, what would be revolutionary is if you could actually use all these fragmented messengers in a single app." http://meetfranz.com/ http://meetfranz.com/ does this in a maybe user-friendlier way than Pidgin (at the cost of a more shallow "integration" due to most of the supported services being non-standard, basically you're running all the clients in one place). It doesn't "remember which of the messaging apps each of my friends prefers, and routes messages appropriately" as requested below by marcus_holmes, but maybe it can start scratching your itch.
- wwfrn 9y ago
  I have slack (via their irc gateway), facebook messanger, and google chat/hangouts unified in pidgin. I could pay pushbullet to get sms in there too!
- marcus_holmes 9y ago
  This. So much this. I want an app that remembers which of the messaging apps each of my friends prefers, and routes messages appropriately. If I block someone, it blocks them on all the apps I've ever talked to them on. I think I use over 5 messaging apps (including sms) on a regular basis. Too many.
  - brianwawok 9y ago
    Considering most apps these days are a closed api that sounds terrible to code.

k_bx 9y ago

> Or, since we all have widescreen monitors (and often multiple monitors) you could just have your messengers in a window next to the browser instead of a sidebar within the browser. And have all links from external app open in a window depending on which was the last one you've used, and having to open links from chat and then drag them to the main browser window. No thanks.