Its not a game (this time). Although the last time I put a piece of code on the net, it was my magnum opus Tempest in a Teapot , so I did cut my coding teeth on game programing and I've always been a silent patron of the gamedev.net forums. Let me expound for a moment on what I've written. Its a web browser that allows you to see and interact with the other users on a web site. You're represented by a small avatar overlaid onto the site. All the other users also have avatars. When you click about the page, to indicate what you're reading or interested in, your avatar will move there. In this way, users can arrange themselves spatially and much like in a real world gathering, break off into smaller conversations within a larger context. I really need to see if this is working on other people's machines -particularly how the server behaves under load - so I'm trying to drum up a small user base. Please, if you'd be so kind, download and give it a try. I've got Windows, Mac, and Linux binaries available. A note: you do have to sign up. I know some people have an aversion to that. Feel free to type rubbish for now, I don't care. Just remember the email address and password you enter so that you can sign in. Get it here: http://www.jeremykross.com

I'd never use yet another browser for this one feature. You should consider building the client as a plugin for Firefox and/or IE.

That said, it looks like a reasonably neat idea.

@BeanDog

You make an interesting point and I know this is a public relations battle I'm going to have to fight. Trek is, in my mind, more akin to IRC than it is a browser. The browsing element is just a conduit to finding people with similar interests. Its not, and was never meant to be, a fully fledged browser. Its meant to be a social tool.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure the stuff I'm doing with Trek are well beyond the capabilities of a browser plugin; certainly the experience would be diminished.

(edit: awkward wording)

Just took a glimpse at it so far... but..

I find this to be a great idea, but how to get more people using it? 99.9% of websites you go to other main searche engines like Google, there will be nobody to chat with. Even if you polish it up, it'll be hard to attract users to a new social network.

I'd recommend implementing a custom messenger system too, like Trillian (allows you to connect to AIM,MSN,Yahoo,IRC etc. all from same software) -- that way people can still contact their friends from the web browser. Voice chat feature wouldn't be bad idea either.