Workin' Web 2.0

From Workin' Web 2.0 by Eric Holter

By Eric Holter

In our newsletter “The Internet at Work,” I reviewed some of the Internet-based applications we use here at Newfangled. Well, Web 2.0 has been in high gear for a couple years now and today there are vast numbers of web-based applications that can replace just about any desktop equivalent. Word processing, accounting, image editing, video production, database development, customer relationship management, and presentation software all have their online counterparts.

But how do these web apps compare with their offline brethren? Are they as reliable? What about privacy and access? Important questions all, but one thing's for sure, desktop applications are being given a run for their money—er, well maybe not for their money, since these online apps are usually free.

This month we'll review some of these web-based applications and share which ones we use.

Fulfilling the Dot.Com Dream

Web 2.0 is making good on the promises made before the dot com bubble burst. The web is an exciting place these days. The activity is intense. It truly is impossible to keep up. In our original newsletter on web-based applications we revealed which web apps we use to maximize our efficiency and encourage collaboration here at Newfangled. Some of these tools, like VirtualPBX and Google Talk, are still happily in use today. But there are many new tools we've adopted since.

The available range of web-based applications is astounding. A newsletter like this can only begin to scratch the surface. There are so many web apps that certain blogs and websites have become extraordinarily popular by simply cataloging and reporting on them. TechCrunch is one of these sites. They have a new tool called CrunchBase that provides the details of new Web 2.0 companies and their web apps. SimpleSpark is another site that lists, reviews, and groups website applications by category.

What's driving this explosive growth of website application development? One reason is the growing simplicity of the technologies used to build them. New approaches like AJAX and tools like Adobe Flex are lightening load of website application developers.

Another reason for the rapid rise of website applications is the removal of a major application development hurdle—the need to build for multiple platforms and operating systems. If you're Microsoft or Adobe, when you build a new application or new version of an existing product, it takes a Herculean effort to release software in a bug-free condition, for all of the various operating systems. Web apps, on the other hand, struggle with browser compatibility. But browser compatibility is much less difficult than developing for PC/Mac/Linux platforms and XP/Vista/OSX operating systems. Website application development is blithe in comparison.