Recently I got deeply interested in rich Internet technologies such as Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight and it is hard to not see the trend of returning to good old desktop applications with one big twist – the web included. These rich desktop applications are naturally integrated into the web with its rich services, content while enjoying UI breakthroughs achieved by browsers and site designers. It is great to see unique and smooth UI concepts being delivered across different platforms without being restricted to each platform’s local UI structural constraints.
Although it is just the early days of Adobe Air and others still the trend of providing users with new rich and broad user experience is exciting.
More to come… (and who can say it is not an exciting time in the tech world:)
P.S. I am mainly talking about Adobe Air since it seems the major platform (for now) to catch up upon users and developers. Having said that I have to mention, Silverlight Out of the Browser experience (horrible name as only Microsoft knows to invent), JavaFX (which they promise to have a big comeback this year?), Titanium (I think mostly enterprise) and all SSB (Single Site Browsers) and local browser enhancers (Google Gears).
UPDATE: Just saw this article Adobe AIR Turns Web Developers into Desktop Developers which is an excellent perspective. The mass of professionals now can cross the barrier thanks to these web-desktop technologies.