Build Your Own Browser

Posted by Hyder on June 30th, 2007

It’s been sometime since I discussed an Open Source Idea. That’s when I give away ideas for web apps that could potentially be built by anybody who can. Though of course the ideas may need tweaking, but hey don’t all open source ideas.

I was browsing around and was thinking to myself there is a startup that lets you create everything you could possibly imagine today on the web. From your own social network, to your own blog, to your own store you can even build your own toolbar and more. But so far there isn’t one that can let the everyday internet surfers build their own web browser.

A search for build your own browser yields millions of results. I wonder why no one has built a web app that lets me just drag and drop a bunch of things that I want in my web browser, build it, download it and surf the internet.

Build Your Own Browser

Firefox is probably the best thing to hit the internet since the internet itself. It has made my life much much easier. IE7 is a good enhancement from previous versions but the community that exists behind FF doesn’t exist here. Many people can’t choose which one to use and use both or others like Opera, Safari and so on.

Surely to build your own web browser would be a dream come true to millions of internet users. Imagine being able to include only the functionality you want it to have, have it built with plugins you need right from the outset and even your own logo perhaps, then just download a zipped file and install away.

Plus you could even offer a branded version of your browser to other users who don’t want to build their own. This could build user loyalty for a website or blog to a completely different level never thought possible.

One feature that would really rock is an ability to make customized profiles within your own browser. Meaning you could have various profiles that fulfill various needs for different times of the day.

For instance

Work profile - This profile could only have your email, an inbuilt IM client, load your collaboration tools and whatever else you need to concentrate on while working.
Relax profile - This profile would not give you access to anything work related and would only load your bookmarks and RSS feeds that you use to give yourself some R&R.

And more such examples, of course too many profiles would probably give you a complexity. But then again the choice is left to the user - if they want 10 profiles that all have only one sole purpose than let it be so. One for video, one for photo, one for social sites and so on. The main aim of creating a profile would be to give you a clear distinction for what you’re doing at that present time.

With a lot of people making a living online the ability for them to set apart the stuff that they use to have fun would probably drive up their productivity. I know it would for me.

Functionality and Updates

Of course functionality would have to be the main priority. So, for example, if the team behind FF would take this upon themselves then they could let anyone simply build their own web browser using the bare minimum framework. Set up their browser how they want it and boom that’s it. Features like security, anti-phishing filters, pop up blockers and more of the in built FF functions should be part of the bare minimum.

From their on anybody can add and subtract exactly what they want in their browser and just do a build once. Any future updates should also be handled the same way FF updates itself, in the background.

The community would still exist behind it and they would probably build more plugins pro actively, it might even encourage new developers or total newbies to give plugin creation a try. This could also be a way for developers to offer premium plugins for a price.

How would this business make money?

Firefox makes more than $50 Million a year from the Google search bar in their browser. Now if this app would ever be built, a premium service would allow any user to brand their own browser and offer it as a free download to anybody that wants it. Along with that make the default search engine provider of their choice pay them a percentage for every search made, just like FF gets paid from Google for example.

Naturally that would have to be a premium paid service, so both the company that makes this service plus the browser maker would benefit.

So what do you think? A hair brained idea or a worthy one?

Hey, it’s open source and it’s yours for the taking. If you build something like this let me know.

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Category: Open Source Ideas