Netomat

It looks as if the browser war is not dead, as up steps the to [clean your digital feet on] surf the web, all, of course, in a totally "non-linear" way. Wired News broke the story, so it is no surprise that this piece of kit must be really good then. Honestly.

Their web site defines the Netomat as "a meta-browser that engages a different Internet - an Internet that is an intelligent application and not simply a large database of static files." Well if it is as good as their English, then we are in for a treat. We have more, "It is a browser only by convention. Our current point-and-click navigation, rigid information distribution, and passive browsing of 'authored' information in today's interactivity will be of little use when using Netomat. With Netomat, the user has a dialogue with the Internet." Excellent.

It works by you asking it a question and it then running off and bringing anything remotely connected to any of the keyword back and dumping them on your desktop. The data is not constrained by a web page or site but free floating and independent. As New York artist Maciej Wisniewski points out, "[W]e all got used to Mosaic in 1993, and that definition of a browser has stuck with us for quite some time. I had grown frustrated with it." So he created Netomat, as a "nonlinear browser."

He goes on to say: "The typical browser is based on the page metaphor, but that's really just a suggestion. It's only one way of accessing and interacting with the network that is the Web," said Wisniewski, who works as a software developer for IBM by day. "The Web is not only a database or a static, flat file-storage system. It's one big application." Once again, we find ourselves muttering, "Web Stalker" under our breath.

http://www.netomat.net/

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