I’m finding more and more of my daily applications are moving to the web.

• Google Reader : Has replaced NetNewsWire
• ToDoist : Replaces todo’s in iCal
• Meebo : pops up on my laptop instead of a real IM Client

Those are just applications that I use every day. Others, such as Roundcube could easily replace mail.app if they would just introduce collapsible folder listing. Google Calendar could completely replace iCal if I could sync it with my palm (that is, things i add on the palm go into Google Calendar. I know it can go from gCal to iCal).

So. Web Desktop. Other than being able to sync easily with devices (phones or PDAs), there is one piece missing. Desktop cohesion. All these applications exist in a web browser, usually in tabs or separate windows. Problem is, they are not only ugly but don’t always use the proper hot keys for the operating systems. command+n doesn’t create a new Todo in todoist. The web app has the bookmark and url navigation of the browser it is in.

The best idea i can come up with is a Firefox extension that allows an API to websites to more easily control the actual browser interface. Perhaps even the menu bar (either along the top of the screen for MacOS X or in the window for other OSes) that the browser displays when its window is selected. I’m thinking of GreaseMonkey, but backwards. Instead of you scripting for sites you visit, sites script your browser interface.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 7:45 am and is filed under Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.