Eurogamer recently published an article explaining in detail how the PS3 online entertainment system will match that of the well established Xbox Live. They also speak of the interface when booting up the PS3, describing its menu systems, which are similar to that of the PSP. One of Sony"s goals was to keep consistency across their products" interface to allow for user-friendliness.
Eurogamer writes: "Unlike the Xbox 360, PS3 has a fully functional web browser, which according to Harrison supports a wide variety of standards right up to the complex Web 2.0 stuff you find places like Gmail using - and you can access any site on the Internet through the browser."
Some more interesting quotes include: "...those familiar with Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 won"t find this terribly surprising, but it"s worth noting that the system does show you friend sign-ins and new messages received in overlays on top of the game you"re currently playing - just little notification windows which pop up to tell you about something happening with your friends list. At present, however, there"s no system for actually reading or responding to messages while you"re still in the game, as the operating system doesn"t take resources away from games in order to do that"
You can read the full article here.