Comments on: Open Thread: Do You Crave Offline Web Apps?

By: Offline Applications: A Brighter Future Than You Think « Web Worker Daily

Offline Applications: A Brighter Future Than You Think « Web Worker Daily — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:00:53 +0000

[...] be a big future for offline apps. Web Worker Daily has hosted some interesting discussions on the topic, with very good input from the readers. One of the common positions that naysayers take is that [...]

By: Vijay

Vijay — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:40:55 +0000

Before, someone says every website can create a tray icon reminder, let me answer that. Desktop prolifiration (startup programs, desktop icons, tray icons) is a big issue. Most people dont like too many things running all the time. Desktop platform (Dekoh) aggregates these. Example, install any number of Dekoh apps, it will only run one process, create one icon. It is also about creating a seamless user experience on desktop and web.

Vijay
Dekoh

By: Vijay

Vijay — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:33:45 +0000

I agree disconnected from internet is a small use case. Desktop platforms like Dekoh bridge a crucial gap in web applications. As far as the website is concerned, the user is as good as offline if he/she is not on their site (few exceptions like Yahoo, Google who have a tray icon that pops up when there is an email, calendar event...). The web is a request-response mechanism initiated from user clicks. Using Dekoh platform you can break this. Developers and websites can offer valuable services to the user when the user is not on their site. This is more important now than ever before, considering the user interest in number of web based services is growing. This cannot be achieved by just making web applications offline thru Google gears or something like that. Vijay Dekoh

By: Online Webapplications to go offline « Tech Interest

Online Webapplications to go offline « Tech Interest — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:08:18 +0000

[...] WebWorkerDaily has a nice piece on it, too. [...]

By: servaas

servaas — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:01:26 +0000

well, I tend to be online without interruption. But wouldn’t it be nice to have more offline webapps for your mobile devices ?

By: Paul Cooper

Paul Cooper — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:17:06 +0000

Using web apps is fine if you live or work where there is abundant broadband connections but try living in rural Spain (like my parents do – no ADSL only 41k max dial up) and soon find out that a online apps are horrible to use if you don’t have bandwidth. I’ll certainly be trying Zimbra desktop and Google Reader via Gears next time I’m out there.

The few places I’ve been in the states (SF, Portland, Seattle, NYC, Boston) have all been pretty good at having more or less blanket wifi (plus all the *DSL type options) however even in the metropolitan areas of the UK (and other parts of Europe) wifi 3G and DSL aren’t as ubiquitous – certainly catching up quickly but not there yet.

By: Mani

Mani — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:03:27 +0000

Offline availability of applications and data is quite valuable and is not something new.

I am no great fan of IBM, but IBM Lotus Domino platform provided an excellent albeit proprietary platform to develop applications that worked online and offline, with a conflict resolution mechanism. Of course, these were not transactional applications.

Later IBM released DOLS ( Domino Offline Services ) to make Domino web applications available offline. Of course, Domino has a background replication engine.

Unfortunately, IBM is trying to sunset this technology without providing a good replacement or making it open.

And the world tries to reinvent the whole thing all over again.

It seems that more people have started realizing the limitations of web applications because of the need to be online all the time in order to use them.

Unfortunately, html/javascript applications can only have offline capability added as an afterthought, by way of plugins. Google has filled the gap by releasing gears, to some extent.

I hope web browsers also get the capability to provide resource isolation when mutiple websites are open, almost like an OS. Right now, when one website misbehaves it crashes the webbrowser, like the a single user operating system.

By: Oscar Berg

Oscar Berg — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:14:52 +0000

Honestly, how many of you are actually using online productivity apps for wordprocessing, spreadsheets and presentations – and not using desktop apps in parallel? I believe reliability, performance and mobility (when you’re on the move with your computer but cannot access the internet) to be the main drivers for moving online productivity apps offline. For calendars, contacts, mail etc it usually ok to only use online apps. You probably have a this information redundant somewhere else anyway, as in your mobile phone. For online productivity apps, I see the real value when it comes to collaboration.

By: Davis

Davis — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:26:22 +0000

Omnipresence is a my key factor in using productivity online apps. For me offline productivity apps, in order to be efficient, have to be at least portable via usb or smartphones.

By: Rob O.

Rob O. — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:09:24 +0000

I'm a bit blinded by the convenience of online apps to see much real value in offline versions of same. I really appreciate, for example, that I can check mail (Gmail), read RSS feeds (Google Reader), jot down a few notes (Google Notebook), and even post entries to my website (Blogger) from any browser, anywhere, anytime! I geuss you could say I've drunk the Google Kool-Aid, eh?