Bitty Browser – A Review

Bitty Browser bills itself as “Picture in Picture for the Web,” and allows users to embed a fully functional, miniature browser within a Web site via a widget.

Bitty Browsers can be pre-loaded with a number of popular Web sites, or can be set to the Bitty home page which displays a directory of Bitty sites.  Users can also type URLs or search terms directly into the address bar.

Applications & Opportunity

From the perspective of a site owner, one of the really neat things about widgets is how they can be used to embed content / functionality snapshots of your site into another site.  As discussed ad nauseam on this blog and others, a properly executed and useful widget can be a phenomenally cost effective marketing tool.

But what if you want to take this further?  What if you want to embed not just a snapshot, but your site’s entire experience into another site?  What if you want to start providing processes and functions within the experience of another site that cannot be adequately conveyed in a single page view?

That’s where Bitty browser comes in.  Bitty browser gives widget publishers the ability to embed their entire site within the experience of another site.  And it gives users the ability to perform more robust combinations of content, functionality, and experience than are possible with standard widgets.

Let’s take for example the case of MyBlogLog.  As discussed previously, MyBlogLog is trying to help blog publishers enhance their mini communities by providing social media tools for their readers.  Currently, thumbnails of recent readers are displayed within the widget, and other readers are able to click through to those readers’ MyBlogLog profiles where they can learn more about the person, and exchange messages.

What if this experience happened within the widget itself?  What if MyBlogLog were able to provide all of its functionality and community enhancing tools within the experience of the host blog?  To me, this is pretty powerful stuff, and demonstrates the potential that Bitty Browser has to take widgets to the next level.

Configuration and Testing

Bitty Browser gives you a couple of choices in terms of configuration.  You can add a standard Bitty Browser to your site, you can add a Bitty Browser preloaded with a number of popular Web sites (ESPN, Yahoo!, etc.), or you can plug in any URL or RSS Feed.

There is a configuration tool provided that allows you to set the Bitty Browser’s dimensions, title, and browser button configuration.  The width setting is provided in % terms as opposed to a set pixel width.  In the past, I’ve had some problems with these sorts of widgets, as there are some popular Blogger templates that haven’t been set up properly, that in certain situations, allow a sidebar widget set at 100% width to leak into the body of the post.  I’d be curious to hear from the Bitty Browser guys if they’ve seen anything similar.

The standout feature of the Bitty Browser configuration process is the one-click adds that they’ve established with blogging platforms such as TypePad and WordPress, and the major customizable home pages such as Netvibes, Pageflakes, and Google.  This is the most comprehensive list of automated add options that I’ve seen in the space.

For all other sites not included among the one click add options, the Bitty configuration tool provides any HTML generator that provides two options; a script-based widget, and an IFrame-based widget.

I had no problems adding Bitty Browser to TypePad, Blogger, or Google Home Page, but IFrames don't work with MySpace.

Editorial

I am overwhelmingly impressed by the Bitty Browser.  I think it gives us a glimpse into the next generation of widgets on several levels – most notably with its ability to embed fully functional sites and its emphasis on providing one click add options.

Another area in which Bitty Browser is ahead of the game is in its inclusion of a revenue model.  The second view within every Bitty Browser widget is a list of Bitty sponsors.  The user is given the option to “Skip To My Selection,” but every user of the Bitty Browser sees a sponsor.  To date, I have not seen any other widget or widget platform (other than the ecommerce widgets) that is tackling the challenge of monetization.

Because of the availability of open source browser software, I wouldn’t think that Bitty functionality would be hard for a widget publisher to duplicate on their own.  However, where Bitty becomes a compelling widget partner is through the work it has put in building an ad network, and the one click add functionality it has established with many of the big aggregators.  Speaking as a publisher, it is crystal clear to me why a widget publisher would want distribute their site through Bitty. 

My sense is that the primary challenge that Bitty faces is that many sites have not been optimized to work within such a small window.  However, Bitty has one big trend in its favor in this area – optimizing a site to work for Bitty Browser is not unlike optimizing a site to display on a mobile phone.  As more sites become mobile phone friendly, Bitty will also the emergence of more content for its browser.

I think that what we are seeing with Bitty Browser is the birth of a next generation widget platform, where the widgets are fully functioning sites, and there is a built in advertising network. 

I would advise feature rich sites whose content and functionality do not fit easily into a snapshot widget structure to take notice of Bitty Browser.  Browser in browser functionality has the potential to join APIs and HTML based widgets as major factors in modulizing the Web.

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