Been giving a lot of thought to computing on the web in general.
A lot of hype-ish names surround this concept, but I suppose "cloud computing" is the most well known. Not sure if this is an accurate description of the concept, but there you go.
The idea is simple. Instead of having apps installed on your PC/phone/tablet/whatever, you open a web page.
This page is typically built on technologies like HTML5, Ajax, Flash or others. On these sites, you can create documents, edit pictures, compose music or whatever it is you do.
These sites usually only provide functionality sufficient to casual users. A professional photographer won't be trading in Photoshop for Pixlr.com soon.
However, as time goes by, browsers, plugins, scripting languages and other web technologies grow in capability (and version numbers).
One company that seems hell-bent on building an entire empire based on such tools is Google.
With Google, I can create a simple web page (or blog!) and publish it. I can create online collaborative documents with Google docs. I can create dynamic online meeting spaces with Google Wave. I can run my entire Network Application Infrastructure in the cloud with Google Apps. I can read email and store over 7GB of it in the cloud using GMail. I can search for a map. I can get directions. I can ask my cellphone to trace my location and display it on a map somewhere, or on my web page for all to see. I can do professional GIS work with Google Earth Pro. I can create 3D drawings. The list goes on. All with Google tools.
Oh, and I can search for stuff as well...
The best part of all is that most of Google's products are free, most of them run purely in a web browser, and all of them (even the paid ones) are Open Source.
Their goals stretch to the mobile space as well. Google seems to be aiming for an eventual full Web 2.0 experience on your smartphone. Of course the Android platform (made by Guess Who) is at the forefront of this effort. Let it not be said that Google does not know how to leverage their position in the market.
And Google is by far not the only company with such aspirations.
One company however, seems to be very late in this game. Microsoft. Even the tools they are releasing right now seem to betray the fact that they don't quite have a handle on this "free online" world yet.
However it should be interesting to see what they do in future.
For interest, this is how I use Cloud Computing and Web 2.0 concepts in my daily life:
LinkedIn (Maintaining professional relationships)
Facebook (Connecting with friends)
Pixlr.com (online image editing and retouching)
Blogger ( heh! )
Those are the major ones. I use others from time to time of course.
It is safe to say that our online lives will only expand, and that the OS you use will become less and less important.
Companies like Microsoft fear this idea, and will probably try to chain users to their desktops for as long as they can.
However companies like Apple and Ubuntu relish it, and are busy planning for it. Don't believe me? At the last MacWorld, not a single minute of any Keynote speech was devoted to MacOS or desktop machines. It was all web and mobile.
Of course no company does this because they feel Altruistic. They wan to make money. Maybe I should spend a next post on how they do this, and how they lure (and try to lock) you onto their tools.
Should be interesting.
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