November 30th, 2006

Universal Desktop Daily - Thursday, November 30, 2006

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 1:07 am

Categories: Adobe, Apollo, Flex, Microsoft, Read/Write Web, Rich Internet Applications, Windows Presentation Foundation

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Hey, sorry about the lack of UDDs. With Thanksgiving and then general hectic-ness I haven't been able to highlight things as well this week. It's a shame because there are some cool things going on. Here's a rundown from the past few days.

• Richard MacManus has the scoop on Laszlo and a WebOS. I'm a huge fan of OpenLaszlo, but this caught me by surprise. They seem to be trying to expand the direction of the product, which is great, but I'm not sure about this idea. At least it makes things interesting.
• Keep an Open Eye has a good writeup of the RIA space. He comes away impressed by Apollo, which is something I've noticed a lot. There's a big focus on Apollo in places where Adobe traditionally hasn't been able to reach. I think that bodes well for the product and for RIA adoption.
• Mike Potter has started RIApedia which could be a very cool resource for people interested in Rich Internet Applications. He says he's planning to cover mostly Adobe technologies, but that will make for some good examples.
• Some Flex apps are starting to be unveiled. Digital Positions blogged about their Mednikow Jewelers app. I blogged about Pikeo, a Flex 2 photo sharing application, over on Digital Backcountry and it also hit TechCrunch yesterday.
• Charles Petzold has an interesting, and valid critiszim of XBAPs. Ashish, who is in charge of the packaging and deployment for XPAB has a good rebuttal. It's a good inside look at Microsoft and kudos should go to Ashish for responding. It's worth a read to understand a bit more about XBAP deployment.

November 21st, 2006

The Web is Google's OS

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 10:56 pm

Categories: Google, Read/Write Web, Rich Internet Applications

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Anyone who reads this blog knows I enjoy dabbling in some rampant speculation. But the idea of a Google OS is one that I don't buy. Google has the most powerful advertising platform on the planet and they've managed to do all of this by building on top of the web. Google doesn't need an OS because they've already got a formidable web platform which they can tie back to advertising. Google cut its teeth in advertising with search. Search gave Google the power to determine intent on the user and then give them instant feedback. Looking for wholesale pockey? BAM, a paid listing right there that lets you buy them. You can't do that if you aren't connected which is one reason a Google OS seems out of whack.

Google has invested a tremendous amount of brainpower and money into web applications. They’ve gone out and bought what they couldn't build in house and focused the strategy on providing applications that people can use while they are online (and can jump to new, more lucrative pages). By finally combining some of these, as they have with Google Apps for your domain and Google Docs, they're jumping deeper into the software as a service world, but that's not reason to believe that they are working on an operating system. Google thinks the operating system is irrelevant.

This is one of the reasons I'm so excited about Google and Rich Internet Applications. They showed how Flash and Ajax can work together with Google Finance and they paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, which uses Flash for video (as does their own Google Video). Now I realize that using Flash video isn't necessarily an endorsement of Rich Internet Applications, but for a rich interactive experience, there isn't much of a choice. Google is an advertising company, and as their advertisers demand more, they'll get more interactive. They did it with the DaVinci Code promotion.

Google is using the Web as an operating system, and more companies are going to follow. As that happens, and as demand for better web experiences grows, we'll see an even greater explosion of Rich Internet Applications. Besides, with technologies like Apollo on the horizon, Google doesn't need to worry about an operating system.

September 11th, 2006

Universal Desktop Daily, Monday, September 11, 2006

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 12:55 am

Categories: .NET 3.0, Experience, Microsoft, Read/Write Web, Rich Internet Applications, Universal Desktop Daily, Windows Presentation Foundation

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It is amazing how ingrained a date can become in your mind. It is hard for me to believe that it was five long years ago that the world as we know it changed forever. Since that time, unfortunately, the country that once seemed so united has polarized. This is not a political blog, and I don’t want to turn it into one, but I simply couldn’t type September 11 without marking the somber anniversary. It is a day that will mark my generation forever, and one that continues to leave a profound effect. I hope the world is a more peaceful place another five years from now.

• The big news over the weekend on the Windows Presentation Foundation side was the release of an upgraded Microsoft MAX. I covered it here on Saturday, and there has since been a slew of coverage.
• On Friday, Richard MacManus ran a poll asking his users to chose between "webified destkop apps" and "browser-based apps". I wrote earlier that Rich Internet Applications are both but the responses are interesting: 62% prefer browser based apps and 38% prefer webified desktop apps. The results show a very high regard for the ease and ubiquity of the web. RIAs can take advantage of that ubiquity and still provide a rich, desktop like experience.
• Another WPF item. Rob Relyea is planning to post summaries of interesting WPF links he finds. I think this could be a very valuable resource. It’s one worth bookmarking.
• Also on Friday, Business 2.0 ran an article about Windows Vista adoption rates. While the .NET 3.0 Framework will be available for Windows XP, it is going to be a significant download. With Vista, WPF will just work, so postulating on the Vista adoption rates is a good thought exercise. The game of reach and penetration percentages is very much on.
• Finally, Ajit over at OpenGardens posted on wireless statistics for the world. Mark my words, this is going to be an astronomical market for Rich Internet Applications. For many people, the cell phone is how they connect to the world. Good, lightweight application design that puts content in users control is going to make a big splash - mobile RIAs will be huge.

 
Everyone have a good Monday. For those of you on the other side of the world - I’m jealous that you’re halfway through your day just when I’m having my first cup of tea.

June 23rd, 2006

RIAs, Microformats, and Collaboration - The Kiwi Project

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 11:22 am

Categories: Adobe, Experience, Flex, Microformats, Read/Write Web, Rich Internet Applications

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I talked with Craig Barberich last week about Adobe’s Kiwi project and it turned into a guest post over at Richard McManus’ Read/Write Web. But I think it’s important enough to highlight here on ZDNet as well.

The Kiwi project takes microformats and collaboration and puts them into a Rich Internet Application. It shows off exactly the kinds of things that RIAs can be, and how they will fit into the wider world of the web. The announcement by Yahoo earlier this week just goes to show that microformats are gaining traction. And as an RIA developer, I see microformats as a fantastic way to bring data from the web and put it into my RIA. RIAs are worthless without data, but they do make for a great experience.

Up to now, RIAs have had trouble gaining traction. Part of this was just that the technology wasn’t there yet. But another part of it was that we hadn’t figured out how to break the web into consumable bits. Now that we have some great technologies on the horizon, and the web is becoming more "consumable" by the day, people are starting to see the potential of an RIA. The Kiwi project takes the abstract concepts that I talk about here and puts them in code. They don’t have a working demo up yet, but when they do I’ll be sure to link to it. It’s an exciting project and I hope it provides a lot of inspiration for developers thinking about RIAs.