RR as a browser plugin?

[Richard Gaskin]

Frank Leahy wrote:

> Anyone know if RR has created a browser plug-in for RR?  It would make
> a nice competitor to Flash, etc.

<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22browser+plugin%22+site:lists.runrev.com&n
um=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&start=20&sa=N>

In summary:

Browser plugins offer no substanial benefit not already addressed by using a
standalone as a helper application.

At first glance the browser plugin appears to offer "instant content without
needing to download the engine", but that's an illusion:  a plugin is an
engine, and if folks don't already have a plugin pre-installed the chances
of getting them to do so are not significantly greater than getting them to
download a helper app.

Flash is successful because of early bundling deals with Netscape, and it
remains preinstalled with nearly every browser and OS distribution.  Plugins
not preinstalled languish in obscurity; relatively few survive today.

Moreover, a helper app provides a great many usability advantages over a
browser plugin (see
<http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/netapps.html>).  And with
secureMode turned on in the helper app it's no less secure.

There is another advantage for businesses:  with so many entertaining
distractions just a click away in a browser, businesses lose billions in
productivity each year to employees surfing sports, games, and other
entertainment sites during work hours, the equivalent in the pre-Web world
to giving your employees a GameBoy and telling them not to use it. ;)   By
migrating company portals to net apps they can make many of the same
services and content available but without the productivity-killing
distractions of the WWW.

You can usually help clients wake up to the illusion of browser plugin
ubiquity with this simple two-minute usabilty test:

1. You and your client walk over to his secretary's desk and
   ask him to visit three URLs and report back with a summary
   of what was on each page.  Unknown to the tester, the URLs
   were chosen in advance so that one of them requires a plugin
   unlikely to be present on the user's system.

2. Observe the results.  In most cases, unless the test subject
   is an ubergeek, you'll get a summary of two out of three pages,
   with a comment for the plugin page being something like, "I
   couldn't view it because my system doesn't have something it
   needs", with no attempt to download and install the plugin.


-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 ___________________________________________________________
 Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com