Raven
A few beta thoughts about the new Mac OS X browser, Raven:
- It’s still in beta for a reason. In an hour or so of use, I’ve noticed a ton of bugs. (Key commands don’t always work and I’m typing this post in Safari because Tumblr’s formatting palette doesn’t bother to load in Raven.)
- It’s still awfully fun to use, even with the to-be-expected bugs.
- I love the ability to install web apps of my favorite sites. Raven’s got me covered, for the most part, even in beta: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google Docs, iCloud, Daring Fireball, Pandora, etc., with the promise of more to come.
I’ve sent in some feedback on the apps implementation:
The idea is that you can install a web app, and it will then provide one click access to the primary features of a given site.
For example, Tumblr’s app can take you straight to your dashboard or straight to the “create new text (or photo, or link) post” page.
The Daring Fireball app has links to John Gruber’s Twitter feed and the Talk Show podcast on the 5x5 Network. Each app is different, and they’re building an SDK so that developers can submit new apps, with custom features.
It’s very, very cool.
The problem I’m running into is that it’s also very, very easy to get lost.
If I click on the Daring Fireball app, I can still navigate to other web pages while in that app. If I do so and then switch to a different app, it’s very easy to forget where I was when I viewed the other page, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to find this out, at a glance.
A related problem is that if I’m in the Daring Fireball app, manually navigating to the Tumblr website doesn’t automatically switch me over to the Tumblr app in the sidebar.
Raven should be smarter than me: All my Tumblr activity should occur in the Tumblr app, all Twitter activity should occur in the Twitter app, etc, and this should all happen automatically. Why have a dedicated Tumblr app, if — sometimes — Tumblr’s web page can be loaded in the Daring Fireball app?
Similarly, anytime I visit a website that is not one of my installed web apps, that activity should be passed to the default Raven app — home base, if you will. Don’t clutter my web apps with unrelated web activity. (Exceptions could be made for links, or perhaps a key-command for “keep me in this app”.)
I’ve also noticed that if I’m in an app, and I already have a window open, clicking the icon for that page (for example, re-clicking the icon for the Talk Show web page in the Daring Fireball app) doesn’t refresh the page, as one would expect. Instead, it opens the same page in a new tab. This can quickly lead to tab bloat.
Lastly, the home page button should load the home page for whatever app you happen to be in, rather than the default Raven home page.
Beyond those issues, I’m really excited to follow along with the development process. I’ve never really gotten into Chrome, and Firefox is kind of a non-starter, for me, so it’ll be interesting to see if Raven can tear me away from my Safari rut.
So far, I really like that it feels fresh and that it offers a unique twist on the typical browsing experience.
