Dear god, no rumbling mouse. I hate rumbles even in video game controllers.

I would throw my computer out the window!
People tries to minimize noise level. You just work better in silence. It's easier to concentrate. Adding more sounds is just wrong way to go.

OK, this leaves us with fragrances... :)

Slashdot and Digg might sound like the Wall Street trading floor.. "I got one article over here.. 200 diggs, 3 articles here, 500 links.. Look here! Click Me.. I'm important. Buy in at 3 diggs, sell out at 875 diggs."

Think for a minute what adult sites would smell like...

[shudder]

What about a digicam tracking eye movement and sync up lip movement which translates into physically dynamics of the UI – e.g if my eyes moves over a link and hovers for a 2 seconds, the the link is retrived. If its not what is wanted I can say "back" and the orginal webpage loads-something like backarrow.

Fragrance is a good idea and can be created as a special inteface card or plug is like a usb stick , but the fragnace are like small energy cells which you just buy and replace!!

The best thing that could happen to web browsing would be touch. Imagine how much something like e-commerce would change as a result.

One of the things that has always been a part and parcel of information processing has been the touch element. Although in most cases it has seemed to be one of those factors least focused on, I think that it help the cognitive part of the brain as much as other senses (not including sight). Just think about the page turning process of a book or newspaper. The way some people have a habit of printing off documents to read due to the lack of readability on many computer screens.

The touch element helps the information to what I would call simmer before it enters the brain. It gives us something to fiddle with while we try to process the information.

After reading through your ideas about Sound and how the listening sense can be utilised by sound I think you may want to consider the adverse situation. I think it is not the presence of sound that helps us to process information, but the absence of sound. The future of the listening sense is to produce sound from the speakers that cancels out all background sound and allows a clear focus on the topic area. Lots of white noise and white space helps us to pick out the important information and avoid confusion.

Furthermore, I don't believe that the sight sense has been exausted. Most things on sites are quite 2D and cluttered. Once someone works out a method of presenting 2D info but within a 3D context we will be able to switch contexts much quicker and just like how tabbing has revolutionised browsing, 3D context switching will help to revolutionise info processing.

this would be very cool in google searches. Mouse over the link and you get a buzz if it's spammy or phishing. I actually like the idea of a vibrating mouse (for rss alerts and crap)

Speaking of smellovision, maybe a bad odor could come wafting out of the keyboard when you read a stinker of an article like this one. I mean come on, the useability and practicality of these ideas is nil.

It seems unanymous here that our vision plays the most substantial role in the current web browsing experience. However, as users, we demand a tempered use of our senses, even that one. Just look at a web site like Google, which relies on simplicity and deliberate, minimal designs. If any other senses were going to be tapped into for a future browser, there would have to be great deal of thought put into doing that correctly.

That said, I think many of the ideas about smells emitting from the computer and crowd noises (which reminds me of online betting sites) would be over the top uses.

I definitely agree none of the sounds should be noisy or loud, and I also agree none of my examples were necessarily aiding usability. What I think is they might, and we have to find out yet by exploring in this direction. I think of it like this: I can read a book in the park and at the same time, three kids play frisbee 200 meters away. I can hear their faint voices but it doesn't disturb me. I can fully concentrate on reading my book. The faint noises just give me a sense that I am not alone in this park. These sounds should be heard only subconscious if they should work. On the other hand, the warmth of the air does not disturb me from concentrating. And still, if the air is getting a little colder, I can tell that it's time to pack up and leave, even though I did not see my watch. Another example, probably, is that I can read while riding in a train. Even though the vibration of the train will not disturb me at all from reading, I do subconsciously process this information, because when the vibration stops I know I reached a station, so I can check if I have to get out.

related links that might interest you :

- haptic technologies : http://www.immersion.com/
- tangible media group : http://tangible.media.mit.edu/
- ambi ent devices : http://www.ambi entdevices.com/cat/index.html
- http://infosthetics.com/archives/ambi ent/

"There are five senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste – yet we only mostly use one when browsing the web: sight."

Just a quick OT quibble :-

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_five_senses

"School children are routinely taught that there are five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste; a classification first devised by Aristotle), though it is generally agreed that there are at least nine different senses in humans, and a minimum of two more observed in other organisms."

Browser manipulation of equilibrioception (balance) and proprioception (body awareness) might be technically challenging, but thermoception (heat and cold) and nociception (pain) should be easy enough.

Visit an adult site and your mouse and keyboard get warmer (or a special PC case fan turns on, gently wafting warm air toward you). Try to click a link to a known malware/phishing site and your mouse and keyboard administer a (mildly) painful electric shock. Unless you have the Google Toolbar installed, in which case the pain arrives if you try to use MSN or Yahoo Search...