Browsers are missing some fundamental features. What’s the deal?
1. What you type in a browser input field should be cached–at least for some period of time. Automatically. Why? Because you may accidentally hit a key and lose all that you’ve typed, you may temporarily lose your Internet connection, your battery may die, or your computer may auto-reset after installing patches while you’ve stepped away from your computer to get some information while filling out a form. All of these have happened to me. All of them are annoying. Smart caching is a must have for any real browser today.
2. Why isn’t spell checking built in? Grammar, thesaurus and dictionary features would be welcome too. Auto-correction should be an option as well. (OK, I’ve listed more than two features, but you get my point.)
Neither of these features should be add-ons. They should be fundamental to every browser experience because so many people use browsers to write. Browsers are not just for reading or filling out online forms. People write emails, author blog entries, post comments, send feedback to companies, and on and on.
As for built-in spell checking I agree and this is scheduled to be in FF2.0. But see this blog entry for details of the difficulties of spell check:
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/016618.html
I agree fully with #1, as many blog posts as I’ve lost due to a pen movement being interpreted as a backspace.
Bruce, Thanks for the info! I’m glad to see that Firefox has spell checking on their roadmap. I’m hoping the team can find a solution to the licensing issue. In my mind it’s too valuable of a feature to not have.
MiniMage, I’m with you on this one. Early on browsers made the leap to add offline viewing, now they need to step up and add cached and offline editing. I know it sounds like the concept goes against the original idea of the web browser, but the point is that if you look around at how people are using the Internet, it’s time we all agree that “browsers” are more than “browsers.”
To me, just as the battle over who has “better browsing experience” reaches its peak, these other issues are the ones development teams should be focusing on right now to claim the lead in the best web client category.