To sum it all, the number of browser windows you open seems to be directly proportional to the amount of information you need! The only way to keep track of all of them is either to laboriously resize the browser windows or ‘Alt+Tab’ away merrily.

Unless you decide to move away from just browsing the Net and instead metabrowse it!

What is metabrowsing?
Simply put, metabrowsing is a tool or service that enables the user to view more than a single Web page at a time inside a single display unit. Yes, it may sound difficult to believe, but thanks to metabrowsing you can actually check your mail, the latest count in the US presidential polls, your search results for the term “ollabellamargerita” on Google and just about anything within a single browser window!

Some metabrowsing utilities even allow the user to chip away parts of their favorite Web sites and paste them into a single window!

Literally, metabrowsing puts the user in charge of his browsing experience.

The origin of metabrowsing
Marc Fest, a journalist, is considered to be the man who started it all. Fed up with having to spend more than two hours clicking and waiting while surfing through the Web sites of almost 20 American newspapers, Fest decided to develop a code which would present all the information that he was seeking on just one page! This cut down his surfing time by almost 20 minutes!

Finance guru Andrew Tobias encouraged Fest to write the code for a public version of the application (which was christened Quickbrowse) and a new phenomenon was born.

Cory Kleinschmidt of Traffick.com coined the term “metabrowsing” in his article “Metabrowsing changes the way we view the Web” in February 2000. The publicity triggered off a spate of activity in this new field and the period since has spawned a number of metabrowsing tools, each offering its own brand of Web customization to the user.

Major metabrowsing services
Metabrowsing tools come in all shapes and sizes. Although there are nearly a dozen of these services on the Net, the most popular by far is the one that started it all: Quickbrowse. It comes free, does not require a download, and presents all Web sites in a single, scrollable window.

There are, of course, a few catches to this. The more Web sites you wish to see, the longer the download time and the more you will have to scroll. Also, you cannot pick any specific content from a Web page; you have to view the entire page.

Another free metabrowsing service is Octopus. This requires you to download a small application. Octopus allows you to customize your browsing experience by providing a host of tools, including Super Search (scanning a number of search engines at one go), Power Browse (seeing your favorite Web sites within a single window) and Edit View (which allows you to select subjects on which you needs information and arrange the information on a single screen). You can also share the way you view the Web with other users!

Then there’s my favorite: Katiesoft. Although it does require you to make a 2.4Mb download, you can open four separate browser windows (called “panes”) in one view. Each of these panes is completely navigable in itself and has its own scrollbars. Katiesoft allows you to alter the size of each pane, maximize or minimize them as per your needs, and even set refresh times. There is also a handy channel bar that allows the user to pick sites on a variety of subjects. To top it all, Katiesoft has a feature called “App Capture” that allows you to run an application (Word, Excel, etc) within the same screen.

Other notable metabrowsing services come from Yodlee, Clickmarks and Websplit.

The future of metabrowsing
As metabrowsing is becoming increasingly popular, a number of big names are associating themselves with this concept. GeoCities founder David Bohnett is believed to have made a substantial investment in Quickbrowse, while Akamai has gone ahead and taken over Calltheshots, a metabrowsing service provider.

Metabrowsing has attracted its own share of controversies too. The popularity of metabrowsing has also created a few copyright issues such as taking the content of existing Web pages to third-party Web pages. Metabrowsing has also drawn flak from a number of e-commerce sites, since it enables users to compare prices of a product or service without having to flip back and forth between locations. eBay has also filed suits against several services with a view to block these services from accessing its listings.

The legal battles, however, have only increased awareness of metabrowsing, and even a few e-commerce sites such as AuctionWatch and Bidder's Edge have started providing limited versions of these services to their users.

Legal battles or not, the coming days could see more sites offering metabrowsing facilities. Watch this space for more!