Web Savvy: Not Your Ordinary Browsers
Harry 'Igor' McCracken uncovers mad science transforming Internet Explorer. In 3D!
Harry McCracken
From the August 2001 issue of PC World magazine
Frankenbrowser (frank-en-brauz-er), noun: Any of numerous applications that transmogrify
Internet Explorer's look, feel, and features in ways that range from highly
practical to downright bizarre. See also CrystalPort, CubicEye, NeoPlanet.
Listen up, Webster's: The name and definition are mine,
but Frankenbrowsers are real--and they're multiplying. These aren't full-blown
alternative browsers. They rely on Internet Explorer to do the heavy lifting of
rendering pages, so they sidestep glitches that have sunk past upstart
browsers. But unlike mere plug-ins, Frankenbrowsers retool IE in profound
ways.
NeoPlanet,
the genre's old-timer, packs an agreeable hodgepodge of browsing enhancements,
including a Download Manager that lets you schedule file transfers to happen in
bulk when your PC is otherwise unoccupied. But its signature feature is the way
it lets you perform radical surgery on its personality via skins--custom icon
designs and color schemes that you download and install with a couple of
clicks.
True, some of the 600 available skins are just e-billboards for
corporate enterprises ranging from Jack Daniel's to the Baltimore Ravens. But
most of them are the handiwork of NeoPlanet fans. These user-crafted makeovers
use slick palettes and detailing, such as brushed-metal effects, for a
refreshing departure from the gray, lifeless norm of Windows interfaces. And
even though my rational side keeps telling me that cosmetic changes shouldn't
make browsing better, they do.
Still, NeoPlanet's reign as my favorite Frankenbrowser ended when I
found CrystalPort. First of all,
CrystalPort fixes a lingering IE limitation: its inability to handle more than
one Web page unless you launch multiple copies of the browser. CrystalPort's
tabbed design lets you load as many pages as you like, hop between them in a
heartbeat, and save them as a group.
Then there's AppCapture, which lets CrystalPort treat other apps like
plug-ins. That means, for instance, that you can tuck your e-mail or
instant-messager client of choice into the browser for quick access. For me,
that feature alone is worth CrystalPort's cost of $20. At press time, though,
the product's creators had plans for a new, improved version and a price hike
to a yet-to-be-determined figure.
Every good Frankenbrowser is innovative; 2ce's CubicEye is
utterly unique. Billed as a 3D browser, it gives you a window that looks like
the inside of a cube, with Web pages tacked on its walls. You can rotate the
cube so any page is on the primary, back wall. Here's where things really get
weird: You can divide the cube's walls into other Web-plastered cubes,
subdivide those cubes ad infinitum, and then zoom around them in smooth, 3D
motion.
3D or Not 3D?
The point of CubicEye, 2ce says, is to simplify Web navigation. But
this package is more a work of freakish genius than a workaday tool--amusingly
hallucinogenic, but also disorienting. And the 3D effects gobble resources: You
need a Pentium III PC with 128MB of RAM, brawny graphics, and late-model
versions of IE and DirectX.
So would I advise plunking down $20 for the full version of CubicEye?
Nope, but the free lite edition is worth a gander if your PC is up to the task.
One thing's for sure: You won't be bored.
On a personal note, occupying this page has been a blast, but it's
time for a breather. PC World Contributing Editor and old pal
Brad Grimes takes over next month. See you elsewhere in PC World.
Harry McCracken is an executive editor for PC World. Find files mentioned in this
column at PCWorld.com's Downloads.
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