NanoSaka > Saurabh Kaushik

I am dreaming …. I am concerned …. I am a server side application developer.

Everyone is talking about LBS (Location Based Services) for mobile and they are developing applications for the same. Google with Andriod, Nokia buying NavTeq and Yahoo going for “Go”.

Why everybody is developing their Location Aware Applications? If I have to install 10 softwares on my mobile, I am sure all of them will be reading my GPS info constantly from mobile and sending to their respective servers. First of all, it is sheer wastage of processing power of my tiny mobile and also the bandwidth (because applications may use their own protocol to transmit Location Coordinate) . It can be easily done if HTTP request has this parameter for Location Coordinate.

If I would change the scenarios a little bit. Instead of developing applications which send Location Coordinates to server applications, develop only server side application which work with Location Based Browser (LBB).

What the hell is LBB?

LBB is a normal browser with extended capability to send Location Coordinates in HTTP request itself.

What will it change?

It will change the world, the way people are developing and thinking about mobile applications. Instead of putting effort in development, installation, upgrades and porting application to differnt platform, stick to server side and rely on Location Based Browser and do the rest. I don’t see any difference when I compare between todays Application revolution and evolution of desktop application maturing into Web Application. Do you remember how many software installations we used to do with Windows 95.

I will be awake and happy if browser companies can think and develop this feature into their browser. It will be similar transformation what we saw in desktop with browser presence.

Loki is a solution but it is still not for any other mobile web application development.

Mozilla, Apple, Google, are you listening?

I have been browsing Firefox plugin site for last two years…. for one very important solution to my Bookmarks Sync Up from Mozilla. All this while, I have tried Google Browser Sync and Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. But I am never satisfied.

I think it is very late move from Mozilla to venture into this project called Weave, which will centralized my data ( all type of bookmarks, RSS feeds and preferences) to one authetic place called Mozilla planet and provide me a uniform browsing experience with my data available on all my computing devices. This should have been an integrated browser solution from day one as both people and their computing devices are not singleton anymore.

I always thought that this kind of user data management can be a big potential for building new services around and we have already numbers of Social bookmarking solutions (del.icio.us, technocrati, stumble upon) out there which makes me happy but confused (which one to use?) At this point of time, Web King, Google has already taken consolidated lead into this area with Browser Syn and Toolbar, it will be a hard to catch run for Mozilla. Reason, why would I change if experience with Google is increasingly satisfying!!!

Mozilla could have bigger advantage in Social Web phenomena than Google who interestingly taken the responsibility of browser to share data in cloud and keep it available not only for users but for themself also.

I am firm follower of Mozilla and Google products, I would still look for synergistic solutions like:

• To integrate my live bookmark of browser to get synchronized with Google Reader.
• To integrate my bookmark of browser to get synchronized with Google Bookmark.
• Browser controlled central place for all my public bookmark management.

Here, I am not advocating to make my browser super-powerful desktop application. But an browsing application which

1. Make me mobile (on all computers and mobile devices)
2. Maintain my identity (cookies, form data, history and passwords)
3. Maintain my preferences (static, social and live bookmarks)
4. Lesser number of plugin on my browser from competing vendors.
5. Also able to sync my dictionary (my added words).

Where is Minimo?? Mozilla should have also got into a mobile browser market much earlier where Opera, IE and Safari are solidly gaining ground.

Mozilla should also develop a Firefox variant which can be installed directly on hardware. Beat the Google OS before it rises. Mozilla can become the force to reckon and they can capture very center of Cyber space.

This article seems like a preaching and beating to Mozilla. But these are just thoughts and passionate desires from my experience with their products.