the Onda

So Google has finally used its offline shim, Google Gears, on the second of their apps, enabling Google Docs to make word processing offline a reality. Big single hand clap for the boys from Mountainview: we can now rely on the cloud platform to do what MacWrite did for us 24 years ago and only a year into the whole Gears thing!

I am only half-joking here. Despite the fact that this move to the cloud is probably the biggest platform shift in computing since the rise of the PC, I'm a little surprised at how the big boys' client stories are moving. For instance, Google Gears has been in beta since last summer and we've still got no support for Safari and little use inside of the Google application suite. Where is offline Gmail?

And as far as the "rich runtimes" are concerned, I remain unimpressed with the minimal offline value they bring. For example, I've been playing with a couple of the Adobe AIR Twitter clients, the best of which seems to be Twhirl, which still feels more like web widgets pasted into the desktop. In fact, the only thing I can say about all of the AIR applications I've played with is that the best of them feel like Winamp did back in the late 90s— sort of "different" for the sake of being different.

Lately, I've been thinking much more about the client side of the cloud enabling real desktop applications to make a comeback, but with the bulk of their interface being painted inside of an AJAX-enriched web browsing experience. This was why I am growing more excited about SSBs (Single Site Browsers) and also why I'm fairly intrigued by the growing popularity and portability of Webkit as a rendering engine. When combined with self-updating frameworks like Sparkle or easy Greasemonkey integration from projects like Greasekit, we might just be starting to see the outlines of the client side of cloud computing.

It's interesting to see that while the elephants are dancing in the room, we might do well to pay attention to some of the small mice scurrying about.

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