Sherlock + .Mac = ???
I'm curious exactly what sort "portal" would result from folding Sherlock into .Mac? The traditional idea of a portal accessible by a browser makes sense to me--though I have never had use for one and prefer to see a minimalistic Google page on launching my browser (Chimera mostly)--but Sherlock as a portal I do not understand. Would this mean that I could access everything from "Backup" to "Homepage" via Sherlock's Toolbar? Actually, as I think about it, it begins to make sense. Consider the layout of the mac.com page: within the brushed-metal border on the top of the page sit icons representing the seven .Mac services. These icons could easily be placed into Sherlock's Toolbar next to "pictures," "stocks," "movies," etc. This would be a small innovation, but nevertheless a nice one--though I can't imagine even the combination of Sherlock and .Mac services in one utility serving as a starting point for most users; that is to say, it would be too sparse for the portal-dependent on the one hand, and too restrictive for those comfortable with search-engines and bookmarks on the other. If Apple, however, were to take the additional step of making Sherlock and .Mac services accessible as icons on the customizable toolbar of an Apple-branded browser, I think that many of us, in the second camp at least, would be quite pleased.