Brow.si for Vanilla - Feedback

mysiteapp

Hi: We have just released the Brow.si plugin for Vanilla here: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/browsi-plugin. We hope you find it useful. We'll greatly appreciate everybody's feedback (please post any thoughts here).

Thanks for trying Brow.si and letting us know what you think.

Adrian

Hi guys,

I can vouch for Brow.si. It's a startup in the mobile field and they could really use the community feedback. I am using on it on some personal forums and so far I have had good feedback.

Srggamer

Just wow.

hbf

what does this really do for mobile users? i read the description. I dont get it.

hgtonight

I read the browsi web site and also don't understand what it does.

hbf

@hgtonight said:
I read the browsi web site and also don't understand what it does.

same here. between the plugin page and the web page i saw the same buzz words.. but nothing that made me say "ah, yeah"

Adrian

That's good feedback and I agree there are lots of buzz words. I think the best way to describe it is a kind of Meebo bar for mobile --but much better. It lets users search, share and read-later easily from a tiny widget. I was skeptical at first as well, but I do have it running on a couple of sites and it is useful. I have spoken to them about their product, but I suggested they create the plugin so others here could provide feedback as well --so try it out and don't be shy ;p

hbf

meebo bar is DOA, right? I had that on my site for a while, most of my users sent me "WTF" type messages about it. i was not deterred, left it up.... then it disappeared.

i digress.. i'll consider trying this out. i'd really like to just see it in action on a live site before i create an account and ditz with it for an hour.

mysiteapp

@hbf @hgtonight @Srggamer @Adrian thank you all for the feedback and support.
We'll definitely look into ways to better communicate what Brow.si is and what it does.

Buzz words aside - Brow.si, as @Adrian mentioned, is designed to help users engage with web content on mobile. When you add Brow.si to your site it will place a floating menu (looks like a circular widget) at the bottom left corner of each page. This menu stays with users as they browse, helping them search, share and save stuff for viewing later, as well as subscribe to push notifications for new content that comes up etc. All of these "utilities" are delivered consistently, without users having to look for them (no more scrolling up and down on a small screen looking for those tiny buttons).

You can check out a demo here (open on your mobile device) -
vanillaforums.browsi.me/discussions

In the very near future we plan to open up APIs that will allow anyone to extend Brow.si with mini-apps. Mini-apps are like widgets that run on the new layer Brow.si expands on top of the page when a user taps on the floating menu. This will allow you to build and deliver nearly any experience inside the mobile browser without having to make changes to your site (updates on this are coming soon).

This is good stuff, keep it coming :-D Thanks

hgtonight

@mysiteapp So it is a meta widget?

Adrian

@hgtonight, kind of

mysiteapp

@hgtonight, Brow.si is not exactly a meta widget. The add-on is the first step in building an elaborate framework that will allow people to build apps extending mobile sites and the mobile browser.

hgtonight

@mysiteapp said:
The add-on is the first step in building an elaborate framework that will allow people to build apps extending mobile sites and the mobile browser.

A framework on top of a framework for mobile sounds pretty meta to me, but I won't split hairs any further.

Potentially cool, but I don't buy in on potential alone.

Perhaps in the future.

Good luck!