[cap-talk] Webkeys vs. the web

[Karp, Alan H]

David-Sarah Hopwood wrote:
> 
> I don't see any significant difference in expected user intent between
> clicking "Copy Link Address/Location" in a context menu, and clicking
> a button that says "Copy this Link". If anything, the former is more
> explicit, since a button may do almost anything; what the text of a button
> says is merely advisory, and in general untrustworthy.

Recall my original proposal, where the page designer constructed a page that treats URLs and webkeys differently.  When the user clicks the "Share" button, the user gets a URL to a new page that may or may not contain all the webkeys of the page being shared, at the discretion of the page designer.  In the case of my Schwab Account Summary page, the new URL would point to a page lacking webkeys that point to powerful pages.  I could still click a link and got to a page where I could trade stocks, but you couldn't do the same from page I shared with you.
> 
> More generally, I'm confused by the motivation for trying to duplicate
> standard browser features (history, the back button, link copying, etc.)
> in page content. *If* the standard feature doesn't do what is expected,
> then that needs to be fixed; adding a similar feature to the page that
> does something subtly different is a step in the wrong direction for
> real usability.
>
The standard features are just fine for URLs, so there's no need to fix them.  They are not fine for webkeys because it's too easy to make a dangerous mistake.  I contend that the only way we can make it harder to make those mistakes is to have the UI do something different for webkeys.

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp