Would it be a good idea to include a welcome message in my own browser?

[NanoSector]

Hello.

I am writing a browser called "Simple Browser". It has various function that.....ah well I don't have time for that.

Now, would it be a good idea to make a toolstrip (statusstrip) that shows what forum software is used when browsing forums?

Like:

[browser window]
[Powered by: SMF/phpBB/MyBB/etc.]

Or would it be useless?

People like me just like to know what software a website is using

[MrPhil]

How is your browser going to figure out what software application is being used? Is it going to look for certain strings on the page, or certain unique file names? All of that can be faked or changed in order to deceive (e.g., change SMF file names to phpBB file names). I don't think there's anything in the HTTP protocol that will give you that information, and even if there is, as usual a false reply can be sent for almost anything.

What is the purpose of knowing what application is being run? How many people would really care? You can always go exploring through the page's HTML source if you're curious. How much detail would be needed to be useful (version number, not just SMF or phpBB or...)? How much data would your browser have to store somewhere, and how often would this "signature list" have to be updated?

All in all, I don't think many people would find this a useful feature to take up screen space displaying the application software. For those who are curious, perhaps a plug-in to examine the page source upon request, or just manually examine it in View > Page source, to spot various file names and meta tag contents (but again, all this could be faked by the site if they don't want anyone to easily find out what software is running the site).

[NanoSector]

How is your browser going to figure out what software application is being used? Is it going to look for certain strings on the page, or certain unique file names? All of that can be faked or changed in order to deceive (e.g., change SMF file names to phpBB file names). I don't think there's anything in the HTTP protocol that will give you that information, and even if there is, as usual a false reply can be sent for almost anything.

What is the purpose of knowing what application is being run? How many people would really care? You can always go exploring through the page's HTML source if you're curious. How much detail would be needed to be useful (version number, not just SMF or phpBB or...)? How much data would your browser have to store somewhere, and how often would this "signature list" have to be updated?

All in all, I don't think many people would find this a useful feature to take up screen space displaying the application software. For those who are curious, perhaps a plug-in to examine the page source upon request, or just manually examine it in View > Page source, to spot various file names and meta tag contents (but again, all this could be faked by the site if they don't want anyone to easily find out what software is running the site).

It searches for "Powered by SMF" in the page. If it is found it counts as detected, if it doesn't it counts as not-detected.

So you say it isn't useful. Though your preview of a button that says what software it is I may implement that instead of the statusstrip.

[MrPhil]

No, I don't think most people would find it terribly useful. If they're curious what a page is written in, they can examine the HTML source and find out (unless identifying information such as "Powered by SMF" has been removed or altered). Personally, I wouldn't consider it a good use of browser resources and PC disk space to build in such a thing, but hey, it's a free Web and you can do it if you want. You never know what kind of things people will dig(g). I suppose there are places for niche browsers -- as an example, Facebook just launched a browser tailored to especially work well with FB and related apps. Of course, if they have 1 in 14 humans using their site, it's not exactly "niche", is it? If you're casting about for something to do in the browser arena, I would suggest thinking about how people use major apps each day, and how some kind of specialized browser might make their lives easier (that was FB's approach). That might work better than coming up with a nifty idea (identifying the app that's running) and building something around that. Have fun!

[NanoSector]

No, I don't think most people would find it terribly useful. If they're curious what a page is written in, they can examine the HTML source and find out (unless identifying information such as "Powered by SMF" has been removed or altered). Personally, I wouldn't consider it a good use of browser resources and PC disk space to build in such a thing, but hey, it's a free Web and you can do it if you want. You never know what kind of things people will dig(g). I suppose there are places for niche browsers -- as an example, Facebook just launched a browser tailored to especially work well with FB and related apps. Of course, if they have 1 in 14 humans using their site, it's not exactly "niche", is it? If you're casting about for something to do in the browser arena, I would suggest thinking about how people use major apps each day, and how some kind of specialized browser might make their lives easier (that was FB's approach). That might work better than coming up with a nifty idea (identifying the app that's running) and building something around that. Have fun!

Thanks for your tip. I got some ideas because of that text your typed