We don't need more chrome, more social in the browser. If anything we need less chrome, and more of a sense of workplace management around the types of sites we visit. I'd rather the site dictate my social experience, and let the browser help me work, organize information, and experience my online social ontology without encumbrance.
It assumes I have a singular window to the virtual world, and yet its social experience model of sidebars does not scale well when applied linearly to the way I consume information using browsers.
It's an immediate fail. I usually run maybe two dozen browser windows, each with tabs. The modality of that experience will not map on to how I should consume the social aspects of my online life.
Well said Ethan. My browsing habits are very much the same. Several windows, each with related tabs. IE, one for "productivity" with gmail and work-related sites, another window for code-related stuff - usually some stackoverflow searches, et cetera. Don't want each to be cluttered by those two mini-sidebars. Perhaps replace the "blank new tab" page with some of that social stuff as an option.
