What will the browser look like in five years?

April 20, 2010 · by Espen André Øverdahl

In an article on the O'Reilly Radar today there's an interesting interview with Opera's Charles McCathieNevile on the future of Web browsers:

The web browser was just another application five years ago. A useful app, no doubt, but it played second fiddle to operating systems and productivity software.

That's no longer the case.

Read the full interview - it's worth it!

Readers' comments 13

Left under the original article, as archived.

Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaTuesday, April 20, 2010 4:46:48 PM
MS was criticised for integration IE with operating system. Now the browser becomes the operating system.
TamilTuesday, April 20, 2010 4:47:15 PM
Martin KadlecTuesday, April 20, 2010 4:58:43 PM
Originally posted by Jurgi:

I don't have a drinking problem but I do have lots of girlfriend problems, can Opera 10.51 help me solve them?
d4rkn1ghtTuesday, April 20, 2010 5:15:16 PM
Charles SchlossTuesday, April 20, 2010 9:02:30 PM
Originally posted by Jurgi:

MS was criticised for integration IE with operating system. Now the browser becomes the operating system.

Which also made it an easy target for hackers

The mobile browsing experience is the only way some people can have access to the net, so I would say mobile browsing will become big
Cutting SpoonWednesday, April 21, 2010 4:34:30 AM
What will it look like? I'll tell you when I reach the bottom of my second pitcher.

More seriously, browser vendors don't want the user to ever leave their little world. This is not such a bad thing; if you can get everything done in one place, you won't need to care.

I just hope it's not like SphereExplorer.
Arrhis MannoWednesday, April 21, 2010 11:22:25 AM
I'm never interest, to install Opera.. (for my PC/ Mac). To many errors and lag.. I trying to used O.M 4.2 for my cellphone, just for testing. I'm found Opera from my friend. The worth browser is Netfront and Opera !! Forgive me everyone...and my spell worse too.
Cutting SpoonWednesday, April 21, 2010 4:12:30 PM
You must live in some wonderful, other world then.
James Harry Clark IVWednesday, April 21, 2010 7:47:27 PM
HAHA indeed he must, but too many errors and lag???? mayhaps a vocabulary check is in order in addition to the spelling?

But what will they look like in 5 years? Probably frakkin' browsers. 5 years ago they looked the same, and 5 years before that. (5 years before that it was Netscape, which was *pretty* much the same anyway.)

I just hope there will be less addons, more screen realestate, but onscreen access to most used features (like the bookmark bar in Chrome, gestures will come to all browsers, and Opera will gain market share. the 3 big OSs have their own browser - apple/safari, win/IE, Linux/Firefox (kindof...). Maybe OSs will stop shipping with 'default' browsers... (or webkit will become standard, so we can all get along!!!)
Ricardo FerreiraWednesday, April 21, 2010 8:20:41 PM
Probably the same has today! Mi favorite application
Yung Daddy Junior Jr(II)Saturday, April 24, 2010 4:00:35 PM
The population of people in opera mini will be more than three continent population,opera mini will be used as a basis of employment by any employer.
Daniel ZiltenerSunday, April 25, 2010 4:20:50 PM
I think, in case of Opera, there's not much that can be improved
I mean, just look at this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/194644/OperaGrid.png
James Harry Clark IVSaturday, June 26, 2010 7:07:59 PM
I changed my mind - in 5 years, all browsers will look almost identical - kind of like car manufacturers. Honda and Toyota and Ford have their iconic aspects, but they all are showing the same shapes, the same ergonomics, the same sizes, etc.

So I think in 5 or 10 or 15 years, even, all browsers will be the same. Except they will be different colors from eachother (and maybe have different icons for back/forward/home).

They will all have tabs (already got that one going - thanks to...firefox? I forget.) They will all have mouse gesturing (I have the extension for Chrome for gestures and its feeling just like opera... so thanks Opera!) They will all have separate processes for each tab so crashes can be logged better and prevent the browser itself from crashing, and be able to pickup where you left off (I think safari has this now, but probably started with FF and Opera) etc etc etc etc etc.

You see where this is going. We've all seen where it's been going for a long time.

In 5 years, Opera 15.2 will look EXACTLY like IE, FF, Safari, Chrome, and maybe we'll see a comeback from Netscape for fun! But that's OK - plateaus aren't always bad - stagnation in development could mean we need to wait for our hardware to catch up to our software. Not necessarily lack of creativity, but maybe the "browser" is almost done! (except for built in IM, social networking, and email push) - maybe the browser is almost done after 20 years of polishing, and it's time to build the next great monument?