Porn Browser Heatseek Launches (yeah, porn browser)

Heatseek is a pornography focused browser that quietly launched today. The point of this software is to make porn browsing more efficient and more secure. The browser is available on Windows machines only, and is built on top of Internet Explorer.

They’ve clearly thought this through. Every feature is aimed at either making porn consumption easier or making it less likely that others will know what you are up to. I’ll walk through some of the features first and save my editorial for the end.

On the security side: Credentials are needed just to open the browser. Downloaded files are encrypted and viewable only through Heatseek. They do their best to eliminate popups, spyware and viruses. Finally, they’ve even included a panic button to shut down the application immediately.

On the ease-of-consumption side: Downloading of images and videos is assumed, and can be accomplished with a single click. As mentioned above, these files are encrypted and can only be opened within Heatseek. Downloaded files can be organized in, well, playlists, and can be dragged and dropped to reorganize. They’ve included a bookmark feature that allows users to quickly jump to their “favorite” scene (see last screenshot below).

Heatseek is also guaranteeing that their software contains no spyware.

The basic version of Heatseek is free, with a premium version available for a one time fee of $20. The main feature of the premium version is that it allows the user to unencrypt downloaded files and move them directly to the hard drive for use in other browsers and media players. The premium version also allows users to access “special content”.

The Heatseek team is making significant efforts to remain anonymous, although there is at least one tie to another browser startup – the Mozilla-based media browser Songbird. Rob Lord, the founder of Songbird, is also a shareholder and board member of Heatseek.

A note to would-be users: Many employers (and spouses) install monitoring software on computers that Heatseek will not bypass.