Cruz 0.4

If you buy what Nick Carr is selling in his book The Shallows or his Atlantic article piece called Is Google Making Us Stupid then you may want to skip this review. Cruz is a Web browser designed for the ADHD crowd, especially if your ADHD tends to all things socially networkable.

Cruz is three Web browsers in one: A regular, run-of-the-mill browser sandwiched between two smaller browser windows that show sites you’re connecting to as mobile browsers. The end result is that you can browse the Internet while still keeping tabs on your Facebook, Twitter, or other mobile-enabled accounts all at the same time.

As a browser Cruz worked as you’d expect any good browser to work, which includes options for tabbed browsing. But I did have some issues with streaming video in the mobile-sized panes that I had no problem streaming on my iPhone. Also, on my 13-inch MacBook Pro I found Cruz’s three paned browsing experience to be... well... a pain. With two mobile panes sized at iPhone widths, the middle browser, the one I was really surfing the Web with, was too small to be useful.

Overall (and on a larger screen), Cruz offers a unique blend of social networking and browsing all in a single application, giving you the freedom to keep tabs on your social world a while you’re Cruzing the Web.

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[Jeffery Battersby is an IT Consultant, Apple Trainer, (very) smalltime actor, and regular contributor to Macworld. He writes about Macs and more at his blog.]