Web Browsing Revisits Three Dimensions

LAS VEGAS -- It's not exactly a return to the legendary Netscape-Microsoft browser wars of the mid-1990s. But when Browse3D launches in January, Web users will be able to choose from two alternative browsers that attempt to make surfing better through a 3D interface. Demonstrated here at Comdex, Browse3D will compete with 2ce's CubicEye, which was launched at Comdex Chicago last April.

While the two products are distinctly different, each uses rotating on-screen 3D panels to let users hop among multiple Web pages. And each product leverages the muscle of today's 3D graphics cards to make those panels rotate in real time on screen.

But judging from the Comdex demonstration, Browse3D may offer a simpler and more intuitive approach to 3D than CubicEye. The earlier 3D browser creates maze-like virtual tunnels plastered with Web pages on the ceiling, floor, and walls--an effect that is visually striking but ultimately confusing.

Browse3D, however, simply places panels to the left and right of the primary page you're viewing. Each panel contains thumbnail versions of multiple pages. Double-clicking any of them loads it as the primary page. The product is essentially a front end for Internet Explorer, so it can display any page that's compatible with IE.

Suited for Searches

Browse3D President Dave Shuping says this approach will streamline Web surfing by reducing the need to shuffle back and forth among single pages using the browser's Back and Forward buttons.

"We talk about taking one step forward, two steps back. That's the way the Web works today, and it's not efficient," Shuping says.

Shuping believes the Browse3D approach will work particularly well with search engines: Once you've performed a search, Browse3D lets you select multiple pages that load as thumbnails on the panels so you can see them all at once. That eliminates the back-and-forth navigation that's typical when you click on a search engine link, then travel back to the search engine to investigate other retrieved links.

What kind of user needs a 3D browser? Shuping says the company will primarily target researchers who troll the Web for data. And he contends that Browse3D's relatively straightforward interface will make it a better choice than the flashier, almost game-like CubicEye. "Our users are professionals--they didn't grow up on Nascar games," he says.

Browse3D plans to offer a trial version of the browser on its Web site in December, then start marketing the finished product for $30 in January. The browser will require a relatively modern PC but not a high-powered one: It will run on a 200-MHz Pentium II system with 128MB of memory, a graphics card with 4MB of memory (8MB recommended), at least 500MB of free disk space, and a copy of Internet Explorer 5.0 or above.