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12:07am June 24, 2008
AT&T's Pogo Browser
AT&T recently started their closed, limited beta of their new web browsing application, code named Pogo. This browser is built upon the same source code found in Firefox 2 which was recently laid to rest with the launch of Firefox 3 last week. After receiving an invitation to download Pogo, I started installing it. Oddly enough, even though it is based on the Mozilla source code, it didn't even ask about importing my information from Firefox.
The installation on my Windows Vista Home Premium x64 went off without a hitch. After watching the professionally produced video tutorials I started snooping around the browser.
The first thing that I noticed was that there is no way to change the search results provider. Pogo forces all traffic to a combination of Google and Ask.com to provide results. This is a very obvious business decision for AT&T. Nobody knows for sure how much Mozilla Foundation makes by using Google for its default search provider, but estimates have ranged from $5 million to $75 million annually. I would put the number under $20 million for Mozilla, but still a pretty penny. If I was a betting man, I would bet that Pogo's search box will be the first target of modders.
Pogo offers some amazing features, including visual history and visual bookmarks. Unfortunately, even these can and will most likely be the target of what I would call "sponsored" sites. Currently the ad space is filled with links to Pogo's features, but if you watch closely in the video tutorials, these spaces are taken up by Pepsi and other brand's ads.
Another issue with Pogo are its system requirements.
The first question that popped up when seeing these requirements was, "why in the world does this browser require video memory?" The next question I had was, "have they looked at any recent screen resolution statistics?" I would guess, and this is just a guess, that 50% of the people using Internet Explorer as their primary browser have less than 256 MB of dedicated video memory. I would also estimate from comparing statistics from a number of web pages, that at least 15% of the people browsing the internet, are doing so with a resolution smaller than 1024 x 768.
After running Pogo for just under half an hour, it was chewing up 257 MB and roughly 10% CPU.
One has to start to wonder, what is AT&T's motivation for developing an internet browser. A quick review of the application will reveal what AT&T is after. With internet users trending away from clicking on ads found on pages or blocking them completely with ad blockers, a new revenue flow must be found. Enter Pogo. Expect to start to see AT&T distributing their browser, once released, with all their DSL installations, similiar to Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable with their rebadged Internet Explorers.
Pogo is an interesting product and does have some features that I expect to see ported to Firefox add-ins over the next couple months. I believe AT&T will have a hard time gaining popularity for their browser with the non-IE community.
Filed under:
Pogo
The installation on my Windows Vista Home Premium x64 went off without a hitch. After watching the professionally produced video tutorials I started snooping around the browser.
The first thing that I noticed was that there is no way to change the search results provider. Pogo forces all traffic to a combination of Google and Ask.com to provide results. This is a very obvious business decision for AT&T. Nobody knows for sure how much Mozilla Foundation makes by using Google for its default search provider, but estimates have ranged from $5 million to $75 million annually. I would put the number under $20 million for Mozilla, but still a pretty penny. If I was a betting man, I would bet that Pogo's search box will be the first target of modders.
Pogo offers some amazing features, including visual history and visual bookmarks. Unfortunately, even these can and will most likely be the target of what I would call "sponsored" sites. Currently the ad space is filled with links to Pogo's features, but if you watch closely in the video tutorials, these spaces are taken up by Pepsi and other brand's ads.
Another issue with Pogo are its system requirements.
| Minimum system requirements: | |
| CPU Clock Speed | 1.6 GHz |
| Physical Memory | 1024 MB |
| Video Memory | 256 MB |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c |
| Free Disk Space | 0.5 GB |
| Screen Resolution | 1024 x 768 |
After running Pogo for just under half an hour, it was chewing up 257 MB and roughly 10% CPU.
One has to start to wonder, what is AT&T's motivation for developing an internet browser. A quick review of the application will reveal what AT&T is after. With internet users trending away from clicking on ads found on pages or blocking them completely with ad blockers, a new revenue flow must be found. Enter Pogo. Expect to start to see AT&T distributing their browser, once released, with all their DSL installations, similiar to Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable with their rebadged Internet Explorers.
Pogo is an interesting product and does have some features that I expect to see ported to Firefox add-ins over the next couple months. I believe AT&T will have a hard time gaining popularity for their browser with the non-IE community.
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Filed under:
Pogo
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