When Mozilla Labs announced it’s first public release of Ubiquity, I like most people, was quite intrigued. The first feature they displayed that caught my eye, was the ability to not only book a flight, but look at its routes and email the schedule to other people at the same time.

Looking at that image at first glance, I am just wowed, because I am thinking that Mozilla has been hiding this massive project behind the scenes and the web is finally ready to revolutionize. That is, till I realize that it is just what they HOPE the application to have the capability to do in the future. Of course, given the technology that it is built-on (the browser and JavaScript), I am certain it would be possible given some airline company provides the API to do so, though who knows how long that will be.

Going beyond this unimportant image, I was a bit disappointed that this is tied to the browser and not an independent application. I suppose from Mozilla’s perspective, they already have cross-platform technology to build on (FireFox), so it wouldn’t make sense to create a new application for each operating system. However, from a consumers perspective (in my opinion), it has no business in a web browser. I say that, not because I am anti-browser (I love FireFox), but I feel this type of user interactivity is best suited for what some would call the Web 3.0 movement. A movement in which data follows very strict standards and semantics, is openly available, and can be retrieved beyond that scope of a web browser. 

Expanding on that, I feel as if the future of the “web browser” isn’t far from being extinct (far being around 20 years). I guess I am starting to go on my usual tangent, however I picture the web being able to DO what the user wants; not FIND what the user wants. A concept that is embraced by Ubiquity but the way it is executed is not how I envision. We are decades off from being able to have conversations with our computer but giving it the ability to translate what we tell it in our language and execute those actions is certainly a good start. My only problem with how Ubiquity implements it, is that it relies on the browser. FireFox, as amazing a tool or platform it may be, invests on the principle that the browser is the way users will access information on the internet. I’m sure years from now, this application will just be a small stepping stone to the larger picture, however I would have much rather like to have it built upon the operating system (I’m just in love with Mac OS X’s spotlight feature).

Maybe I’m just a “hater” or it is just to early to judge the success of Ubiquity, who knows. But overall I am just not too impressed because it isn’t as innovative as I thought it would be when I first came across it. Yes, it is pretty cool that it is easily expandable with just a few lines of JavaScript, but I think that is also it’s “ball and chain”. I certainly won’t turn down using it with FireFox and might even write a couple commands of my own, but I would have at least like it a little more integrated into the browser than just a popup on the screen.

What do you think?