The past month or so has been very exciting when it comes to seeing "where things are going" on the web and in computing in general. Most people are surprised to hear it, but I think that Facebook, of all companies, has fired the most important shot in the coming "future of your computing experience" wars.
Many people who do not pay attention to this sort of thing don't realize that there is a real convergence happening between the future of desktop computing - and the programs and applications that we will use - and the future of services and content on the web. Many companies thought of as software companies have been making headlines for their new RIA (rich internet applications) platforms - Adobe for AIR (the evolution of Flash), Microsoft for Silverlight, etc. These platforms are supposed to make creating applications that work both embedded on a page and used on the desktop (when NOT connected to the internet) easy and powerful. They are the basis for what many pundits envision as the future of powerful collaboration and content consumption products.
In addition to the new platform offerings by software companies that are moving toward the net, internet companies are moving toward the desktop. Google is hard at work making its Office applications that run for free on the net work disconnected on the desktop. It is also creating Google Gears which is supposed to enable people to develop web applications that will work locally when disconnected. For example, Gears can be used to create a feed (blog) reader that will take content and make it available locally when not connected to the internet.
Which brings us to facebook. In May, they released the f8 version of the facebook platform that enables anybody with the most basic level of web knowledge to build, deploy, and distribute a web application via facebook. In this sense, facebook has launched a true web platform, not just a means to create an application, but a means to connect application functionality and content to a socially networked user base. And, they have done this in a way that does not require the creator to be a major league programmer. Marc Andreessen calls this "a dramatic leap forward" and says "The leadership that the Facebook team is showing here rivals anything that the large and established software and web companies have done in this decade." He has written an excellent overview if the platform on his blog.
Others have called this analogous to what Microsoft did for pc application development with Visual Basic - read Dave McClure's excellent post on this - which made it possible for tech-savvy people who were not hard core c++ programmers to build real applications (and made it easier for real programmers to build apps quickly). In short, they created a development platform...just as facebook has developed a web based platform...one that the masses can use.
The other thing that they have done in one fell swoop is to create this platform within a construct of app distribution - via the social networking aspects of facebook itself. Build and app and deploy it and anyone who uses it will automatically be spreading information about it to all their friends. Create an app with social collaboration functionality and the app will spread by it usage as well as its "friend news feeds".
So, to me, one of the truly interesting things will be to see how the rival approaches of facebook apps and Google Gears end up competing with each other...with facebook driving the social aspects and google driving the search and contextual presentation aspects of two turn-key web platforms. It does make me wonder if the pure tech plays in RIAs are missing something with the lack of a connection to web spaces (not a lack of connectivity, but a lack of a web user base to jump in and play)...also a lack of a distribution mechanism...which both Google and Facebook have.
Further excellent reading on this (in addition to the Andreessen and McClure blog links above):
techcrunch article (be sure to read the discussion in the comments)
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