I think the death of the desktop is much exaggerated.
AJAX is better than the last generation of web-apps, but the browser still basically sucks as a platform. Latency is a bitch. :-)
AJAX is better than the last generation of web-apps, but the browser still basically sucks as a platform. Latency is a bitch. :-)
The browser is a fantastic platform. You never have to install web apps. You never have to patch web apps. And you are automatically connected through the client-server paragidm that proved to be so wonderful before desktops ever came about.
Remember, dumb terminals were around long before PCs.
Fantastic for the developer maybe - not so for the user.
"Remember, dumb terminals were around long before PCs."
Right. How was that for the user ?
I feel there's money (or fame, failing that) to be made in a competitor to or addition to foxmarks that allows feeds of bookmarks to be easily subscribed to, so I could distribute a bunch of links in structured format to a development team, say, right in their web browser, that they could all collaborate on. Would take very little effort, and at least I myself could see immediate benefit.
There are a couple and they only suck a bit, but they don't compare to the desktop ones.
I don't use a browser based text editor when I want to make a quick note. Actually a couple of my friends do with google docs - but not too many.
For the apps I use everyday, the browser sucks. It's not just latency, although this is a big contributor to why web apps feel sucky and clunky, but the browser just isn't a very good platform for rich applciations.
The google integration between their applications is very good, and getting better, but it isn't enough to make me forget that the interface sucks...