Speedy

Going for a ride on the information superhighway is a common activity nowadays. This is mostly done through web browsers that have already gathered large communities of users worldwide. It does not mean other web browsers must be neglected, with alternatives such as Speedy that want to prove they deserve at least a chance.

On the visual side, the application comes with a pretty poor design, with a rough interface, simple buttons and implemented tab support for several functions that make it harder to use rather than simplify the whole process.

If you want to access more pages at a time you need to run multiple instances of the application, because the tab support mentioned above strictly applies to other search and navigation options. What's more, for what it provides in return, the amount of system resources it uses leaves, a little something to be desired.

Moving on to functionality, it's difficult to find a feature worth classifying it as being innovative or practical. Equipped with the basic set of features a web browser needs, such as navigation options, URL field and a preview section, little else can be done.

There is an integrated method to quickly find info of interest, by switching the address field to a search input to which you attribute one of the available, popular services like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Lucky thing that you can go back and forth, because choosing to open a specific page in a new window only brings up the content in your default browser.

In addition to simply browsing the web, there are several other tools that help tip the scales a little in its favor. One of them is a clever implementation of the Google Maps feature in a dedicated tab, with several fields at your disposal to quickly jump to an address. However, if you don't properly fill in all fields, there's a high change the application returns nothing.

The application gives you the possibility to stay up to date with the latest events, thanks to a tab dedicated to news. It's merely the standard browser tab tweaked to use a news search engine in order to provide the result, with a similar drop-down menu entry so you can pick the preferred one. Last but not least, there's also a shop counterpart that works in the same manner.

However, the application is not really ready for serving duty for long periods of time. This is because it lacks a disturbing amount of features which cut out most of its practicality. In other words, there's no possibility to save or organize frequently accessed pages due to a missing history tracker or bookmarks manager, support for multiple pages, or even a decent interface.

To sum it up, Speedy has a lot more to learn before it is ready for a rough game at the winners table. Starting from the poorly designed interface to the lack of a bookmarks manager and other important features, the application might make most look away. Although the integrated map system, news provider and shop offer some degree of practicality, it's not enough to place it amongst the pro players on the market.