Let me start by how this idea or thought came to my mind. I was sitting in front of my cousin's 19" Widescreen LCD with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels!! On the other hand, i have a 17" CRT, with a resolution of 1280 x 1024. While working on his desktop, two things came to my mind. One of them shall be discussed or presented here. The other will be posted in a new topic.
At the first glance, what caught my attention was the "low height" of his desktop. Although his vertical resolution was only about 10% lesser than mine, I am so much accustomed to my resolution that his set up looked rather low heighted! Add to that Vista's Black Taskbar being there at the bottom of the screen from one side to the other. It really catches you attention!
While surfing the net on his computer, one thing started irritating me. The widescreen was not being utilized to its potential. On the other hand, a lot of screen space was being left unused and wasted in the horizontal frame. But in the vertical frame, there was clearly a shortage of screen space for browsing. Added to that the space being used by the taskbar. The setup simply did not seem logical to me!
After giving it a though, it dawned upon me that since the taskbar was introduced, it has always been placed at the bottom of the screen. During the Windows 95 times, the monitors were usually the square ones (or so i presume), and the taskbar came to be placed at the bottom of the screen. Although the sizes and orientation of the monitors have changed, but the role and placement of the taskbar hasn't changed (I know the taskbar undergoes a massive improvement in Windows 7, but the core is still the same, and so is the placement).
But is the placement of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen the best options / choice according to the current scenario? Although i don't have real figures, but i don't think i would be wrong in thinking that the majority of the laptops and monitors sold today are widescreen with 1280 x 800 being the minimum resolution. Keep in mind i am talking of the "sold today" screens only, not the screens used by majority of the users. But even the first time buyers in the emerging markets, who might still be using the 15" CRT monitors, are up for upgrades and are going for the widescreens.
So coming back to my though of the current placement of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen being not the best option, i changed the position of the taskbar from the bottom to the left hand side. My cousin protested, but i asked him to try and use it like this on a trial basis for a few days. With the taskbar at the side, it was no longer eating up the valuable vertical screen space, and also, out of focus for the most part allowing me to surf and do my work with a lesser need to scroll up and down.
I have also placed the taskbar on my computer to the left side and been using it like this for around 10 days. And i love it this way! Its much better than having it placed at the bottom. It takes getting used to, but according to me it is worth it.
I know many of you would have set the taskbar to auto-hide, but this article is aimed at the majority, for whom taskbar has always been at the bottom of the screen.
So go ahead, if you have not tried it this way till now, give it a go. Move you taskbar to the side of the screen and keep it that way for a week.
What do you guys think? Isn't it time for the taskbar to move....?
