Emergent Future

Near the end of last month I started a little experiment to use web-based applications for most all of my computer-needs. Some of my experiences doing this were positive, but some of them were also rather negative. As a result, I believe I have a better idea of what I’d look for in web-based applications, and how I’d really like to see the whole cloud idea develop. Because of this, I’d like to start a little series here that’ll cover these topics, and eventually sum everything up with an article to sum up my final thoughts.

First off, I should probably come clean: Meebo doesn’t really suck. Actually, it is a very useful tool. However, the problem is that I can’t see it, or similar services, as anything more than a simple tool. Meebo is very useful if you are on a computer that you can’t install applications on – or would feel rude to install applications on, like if you are using a friend’s computer. Beyond that though, I see no reason to use it.

Meebo suffers from a major problem that I feel is pretty common among web-based applications: they’re trying to be … normal applications as opposed to taking advantage of what the web could provide. Meebo doesn’t reside on my desktop and should darn well act like it persists on a separate server.

Right now I am running a desktop application that does everything that Meebo does, plus extra features on top of that. It is no more difficult to use, with the exception that it does need to be installed – which isn’t a big deal, given that installing new programs is a pretty common thing for most computer users. Heck,  it even saves what services I use, login information, and what settings I have across any computer I use.

But what if, just maybe, when I closed my browser on a web-based IM application it just set me to ‘away’ but kept me logged in? What would happen if I were able to open the service on another machine, in another browser, and still have every conversation that was opened still open – with new messages that people sent me while I was away? Suddenly, web-based IM services would have a leg-up on desktop applications.

Admittedly, that would turn Meebo into a light version of Google Wave – which does exactly what I was referring to, and effectively hybridizes (casual) e-mail and IMing – but with the ability to easily connect to networks that people actually use.

So, that is my request for web-based applications: Make more use out of the web, don’t pretend you’re a desktop application, and just because I close the window you’re in doesn’t mean that I want you to stop functioning.