The use of AJAX in website development takes great flight. But sites rarely go beyond adding slight usability improvements. This, however, is changing.
The emergence of so called WebOS‘s might (and will IMHO) upset the balance of power in the world of computing. Sites like AjaxWindows, Wixi and eXo WebOS offer a user experience not unlike the one you get from your desktop.
This is brilliant for several reasons. Your desktop is now available always and everywhere as long as you have an internet connection. And with the oncoming torrent of mobile internet access this could be beautiful.
The desktop is no longer confined to the metal wall of your computer but is set free on the internet. Filesharing takes on an entirely different dimension. Instead of emailing your spreadsheet documents you can now let them sit on your desktop and share them. People always have the latest version availeble! Or what about large media files? Firing up an FTP client is way beyond the ability of my mother (which is not surprising given the complexity and choice of such an application). She can find her way on the desktop. And thus to the little movie I made of my new home.
Keeping your computer up-to-date with the latest Vista software and thus required hardware is a bore. How much easier would it be to have your desktop grow with your needs? Computing power could come from the servers running your desktop as would the storage space. Companies would charge for what you use. The only thing your computer should be doing is booting directly into a web browser.
These points are future forcasts with an increasingly distant timeframe. But these WebOS’s (should we call them websites? Applications? Webplications?) provide immediate advantages if only as a concept.
The functionality of AjaxWindows leaves nothing to the imagination, it emulates the Microsoft Windows desktop. But Wixi takes the WebOS a step further. As a user you can browser the contents of the desktop of your friends (with consent). This could enable users to collaborate on projects. And of course there is Google Docs, Zoho etc but in these settings you are bound to a single document. The entire environment offered by WebOS’s provides a much broader scope of working together.
The wait is for mashups combining the functionality of wiki’s/blogs/rss feeds with this style of browser usage. For that matter for the first social network to employ this kind of technology.
