Whilst working and thinking around what new possibilities can be attained by the pending IE8 launch - wanted to try and push the boundaries of how and why we use Internet browsers - and from that in 2009 and what is the latest trend around e-commerce and web browsing.
Ladies & Gents let me introduce you to "nano-browsing"
Nano Browsing is a term that we have devised as an “extremely small” browsing experience - where you use tools such as the new IE8 web slice technology (Mozilla has a similar experience) and rather than having a simple cut or slice of the metadata tendered and saved - you start to make this much more dynamic and ultimately browseable. The user experience should not be compromised though and still deliver an experience no matter how small with the end user in mind allowing them to do the basic functions within this environment.
Add to the mix the IE8 "accelerator" and suddenly you can search based on a keyword, someone else's website - neat to a point - however use a spot of nano-browsing thinking and this simple comparison tool suddenly becomes a real richer nano-browsing experience. Start to delve deeper into the page that you are looking for comparisons and look for much more rich detailed metadata, such as the image itself or even the image itself with colour recognition (something like the Idée method) and you have an all together greater nano-browsing experience.
Looking on more detail of the "web slice" it will sit within the favourites on the browser bar - however have that in a concertina effect, dynamically update the slice when changes to that product ID are created and alert the user to the fact that there are changes within their slice.
How much of an experience is that for your customers that really goes beyond a traditional wishlist - and without visiting the website you are instantly aware of a price change, low stock or out of stock. The user can get into their slice and nano-browse their selection and the point here is to prompt, promote and push them into action "only 2 left, I'd better buy them now!!"
This leads nicely onto how the end user purchases the item(s). Tradition and current thinking is that you push the user back into the main website - allowing the user to run through the traditional means of e-commerce (log in or register.. etc..) WHY?
Just because we are used to this - time to move this much mooted and in a lot of cases clunky experience and bring micro e-commerce into play. We have discussed micro distribution a lot last year – and looking forward to more of this in 2009 - (just as an aside the recent move from MTVN to block their APIs and the embedded video player in peoples blogs, sites etc.. is somewhat confusing – they now want to push people to only MTV and not enjoy a video experience within the location where the user landed – goes against the grain of micro-distribution and as such a loss in terms of penetration and viewers) we will push the boundaries of nano commerce and micro e-commerce where we can start to deliver a checkout experience from within a banner size or simple DHTML flyout. Keeping the security elements as such that we can deliver a secure experience for both the consumer and the reseller. However this brings other challenges such as micro payments – why the need to pump your credit card into a site each time – the old adage around wallets will come out again – but thinking more around simple integration from PayPal, mobile number – this way keeping the amount of data to an absolute minimum – but at the same time allowing speed of transaction and convenience.
The example here would be something like I have arrived on a website that I found – however I know that just a single right click away I have a similar store set up to compare against. I right click the image which has both metadata as well as colour recognition – and delivers me a similar and comparable product that has been designed to show me price and stock availability. The company that delivered me the comparison also has micro e-commerce built in there as well. So I can buy it direct and with my mobile number short code (which I set up as I shop with them a lot) I have gone through a simple quick direct e-commerce transaction on a competitors website without ever leaving and going to my favourite store.
This can also be the same for micro distribution – lets take the Fox Family Guy example. Where I have arrived on my friends blog who is showing daily clips of Family Guy direct from Fox. I watch the episode snippet (normally 10mins or so) love it so much that my friend has also implemented the micro e-commerce functionality to allow me in a tasty concertina effect from one screen to the next – I can check out and have a link with reciept delivered to my email account. Where I download the content and using my unique ID unlock the content and enjoy. I am assuming that FOX has already put all the content in the cloud already protected – and can only be unlocked after a HEX Key is delivered – the file itself can be delivered either with or without DRM. The content storage is what is secure in the fist instance – so when a request of the dynamic URL is requested there already is a record of the transaction – then once the content is downloaded this sits with the content owner to either DRM or non-DRM. Not forgetting my friend who also got a nice kickback from eyeballs watching the snippet – he also gets a kickback from the transaction..
The world of nano technology has just arrived on the web – time to embrace it and reach an ever wider audience without breaking a sweat – as your biggest fans and advocates are the ones that are pushing and promoting your content. The micro e-commerce part is handled by the end user embedding the code into their site, blog or Social Network page… It just works…
Want to see an example? Post a link soon… ;)