Marketers Explore Beyond the Browser

Back in May of 2004 I published an articled entitled "An Introduction to Rich Internet Applications: Addressing the Usability Wreck of Today's Web". The purpose of the article was to outline the numerous shortcomings of today's Web interface from a usability and brand experience perspective, as well as begin to explore new developments in online and desktop-based Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) space.

I wrote that "the Web is almost entirely made up of HTML-based Web sites that have been designed within a click-command interaction model, the same model that existed when the Web made its commercial debut in 1992." This is still very much the case today.

Ironically, it was in 1996 that PointCast attempted to break the mold by offering users a rich and interactive application that pushed content directly to the user's desktop. Of course one must also tip their hats to hybrid CD-ROMs, however there were few (if any) large scale deployments of hybrid CD-ROMs that engaged any significant number of consumers -- they were predominately BtoB oriented. At its peak Pointcast had approximately 1.5 million users and over 6 million email addresses.

PointCast screenshot circa 1997

PointCast's downfall, seemingly, also brought an end to this specific category of Web services. It's been almost a decade and we have only now just begun to see a rebirth of the category. Marketers are now beginning to experiment again with direct-to-desktop content delivery. Unlike the grand portal-esque execution of Pointcast, we are witnessing more branded and targeted executions today. For example, Southwest Airlines recently launched its DING! application. DING! is a Web services application that resides in the user's tool tray that transmits live updates of southwest.com offers directly to the user's desktop. In addition, the DING! application provides users desktop access to popular southwest.com Travel Tools like Online Checkin and Flight Status.

Another example is an execution designed by AdTools Inc. (http://www.adtoolsinc.com) for Roche's Tamilflu brand called the Desktop Flu Tracker. The application is designed to alert users when thlocationson's flu level has changed. The application is accessible through the user's icon tray and also provides viral "get well" e-cards as well as a dynamic heat map of the United States that show regional flu levels.

Internet portals are also beginning to throw their hat in the ring. Yesterday, Yahoo Inc. said that it has acquired Pixoria Inc. (http://www.konfabulator.com/), a small software company that makes tools that allow computer users to check traffic or weather information via the Internet without having to open a browser window. Pixoria's product, first released in 2003, is a software engine that runs tiny software programs called "Konfabulator Widgets" that allow users to automatically "scrape" information, such as stock prices or sports scores, off a Web site. Apple built a similar set of tools into its latest operating system. The "widget" programs are tiny and relatively easy for users to customize; today there are more than 1,000 available and most were designed by programmers and enthusiasts. Newly available widgets at Pixoria's site let users monitor the mosquito levels in their Zip code or keep tabs on their eBay accounts.

Jeremi and I believe that this trend will only continue to heat up. We believe that brands need to begin to prepare to wage war for real estate in the user's icon tray and on the user's desktop.

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