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I have always wondered why there is no browser on the 360.

Sony has enabled internet browsing on the PS3, yet Microsoft hasn't. Are there any specific reasons for this?

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

MS now offers an Internet Explorer app for the 360. Contrary to what they say, you don't need a Gold account to download it, but you do need one to successfully use it.

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up vote 16 down vote

The product manager for the XBox has addressed this point directly. Quote below, emphasis is mine.

Speaking to Edge, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg helped explain just why the Xbox will never, ever get its own web browser. According to Greenberg, browsing the web on a television makes for a "poor" experience. Instead, "The real magic," said Greenberg, "is to take those web experiences and optimize them for the living room." He listed the Xbox implementation of Netflix as an example -- the Xbox also has similar Twitter, Last.fm and Facebook apps -- and said that attempting to browse the web on a PS3 is "an absolute nightmare."

Said Greenberg, "No disrespect, there's things I love about the PS3, but that's not one of them." He added that Microsoft wants the Xbox online experience "to be fun and optimized for the living room," and that the company will continue to expand on its applications in order to "get more richness."

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Ah right thanks for the super fast answer. I disagree, browsing the web with a PS3 is useful. I HATE the Facebook/Twitter apps on the 360. Oh well I best just get off my ass and go to my computer :) – theorise Jan 27 '11 at 16:11
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Something of an Apple ethos there; if it's not going to work well, don't do it at all. – Nick T Jan 27 '11 at 16:16
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It's really quite unfortunate... I was surprised when trying the ps3 browser. It is exactly what I was looking for in a console web browser. – Aeo Jan 27 '11 at 17:12
Browsing on a console << browsing on a computer. This is made slightly better on the PS3 because you can just plug in a keyboard, but it also makes the PS3 lazy for ie the BBC iPlayer, which is a unusable mess because they've just wrapped the web-browser and pointed it at a particular location. – TZHX Jan 27 '11 at 18:46

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