ZCubes - Browser in a Browser (BIB)

ZCubes, probably one of the net’s first good browser in a browser websites. Why would you need one? Well, aside from being a great portal/homepage (much more useful and customizable than the Google Homepage). Needing no complicated plugins whatsoever, ZCubes is a great portal application that lets you do anything and everything you ever dreamed you could do on a PC, all within the comfort of a single, online page.

There’s in-built social networking (darn good too!), website development tools, in-built web browsing via the ‘Browser in a portal in a browser’ technology. Right in the same portal (Yes, there are a tons of fancy features!) you can easily create media (that includes pictures, audio and video), add and manage your RSS feeds, do handwriting/jotting (as pictured below - notice my expert artistic skills!) and use the tool for painting and sketching too.

According to the website, ZCubes can manage over 30 individual file formats, ranging from PNG and BMP to WAV and MP4. I’ve not explored all 30, but have been impressed with those that I’ve seen and used first hand. The website soon promises support for SVG and VML graphics formats, for enhanced use and graphical appeal.

For an ‘all in one’ application, I’m rather impressed. Even that said though, I’d still prefer to stick with Digg for bookmarking, Flickr for photos and raw XHTML and styling for website creation. I’ll also be sticking with YouTube for my video, but am now increasingly becoming aware of viable alternatives that I could use, ZCubes being one. For some reason (though the architecture resembles barely anything of the other), ZCubes reminds me of??Box.net - Yet I have no idea why.

ZCubes has a truly unique (and may I add, very exciting) grabber. “Imagine a net with n dimensions. Web N.0 - Not just 1, 2 or 3. But n. Yes, that includes time. It is possible. It is clear that the face of the Internet is quite static, with minor dynamics introduced by primitive technologies like AJAX. Truly flexible Internet is created when you enter n dimensions of bit matter, organized by the whims and fancies of the user - not the creator.” I love the sound of that. But it still sounds pretty Web 2.0ish to me.??

Using ZCubes in IE7 and IE6, I encountered no serious problems. On the odd occasion, the page would randomly reload for no apparent reason and then revert back to the original ZCubes portal home. Thankfully, before doing this, I would always be prompted whether or not I’d like to have my work, sketches and browsing notes saved or not. This usually happened while I was browsing through search results in Google, I noticed. If you do encounter any problems, there is a friendly forum that makes it easy to report any bugs, glitches or concerns you may have about ZCubes.

The technology that ZCubes relies upon is entirely browser based, meaning lots of work has gone into it, so that there is no need for additional plugins, etc. I have no idea how they do it, but according to Parag Mathur, Vice President of Product Management at ZCubes, they use only the “latest in next generation web technologies???. And I can see that they really do it successfully.

Working info from RWW. Sourced from Technically Speaking.