The Web is Everywhere [Note from the Editor-in-Chief]

LYT-EDIT_NOTE-SEPT

8/21/07

1:54 PM

Page 16

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

THE WEB IS EVERYWHERE

T

concerned about installation and updates; he Web is clearly the predominant users can access the Web from any location Internet application today. In fact, if and any device; software developers do not asked about the Internet, many people in need to be worried about software distributhe public would think of the Web browser. tion or privacy; software needs to be updatThe Web has become far more than static ed only on the server; services are HTML pages; it is a common medium for independent of operating system platform. e-mail, electronic commerce, file backups, However, Web applications have an inhermultimedia entertainment, collaboration ent limitation: users must be on-line to and socializing, and office software. Many access the Web. companies, including Microsoft, are investiHence, the second development that I gating migration of traditional desktop softfound interesting was Google Gears. It is a ware to Web services. Given the browser extension (in beta) that adds a importance of the Web, I am often interTOM CHEN Javascript API allowing Web applications ested in news about Web innovations. to work off-line with locally cached data. Recently two news articles about the Web When the user goes on-line again, all changes to local data caught my attention. are synchronized with the server. Google Gears has three First, as most people have heard, Apple released their major API components: a local server to cache and serve new iPhone. Of course, the two most noteworthy features application resources (HTML, Javascript, images, and of the iPhone are the renowned Apple industrial design such); an SQLite database to store data off-line; and a and the new “multi-touch” graphical user interface. Anothworker thread pool to synchronize data in the background. er interesting fact that Apple revealed is the iPhone runs Google Gears’ goal is not unique. Some Web applicaMac OS X and a full Safari browser. Thus, the iPhone has tions use intelligent caching to enable off-line functionaliWeb browsing capabilities similar to a desktop PC, ty. An example is Zimbra Desktop (in alpha) that allows although the browser has certain limitations (namely, a 3.5 its Web 2.0 e-mail and calendar applications to work offinch display; no Flash; 10-MB limited downloads; and line with locally cached data and resynchronize later when five-second Javascript execution). reconnected with a Zimbra server. Still, the iPhone is an interesting development because Adobe Integrated Runtime (in beta), formerly called there are one billion PCs but more than three billion cell Apollo, is a cross-platform runtime for using Web techphones in use worldwide (among 6.6 billion people). The nologies (HTML, Javascript, Flash, Flex, AJAX) to extend iPhone could be the start of full Web browsing on cell Internet applications to the PC desktop. Once installed, phones and other handheld devices, which would mean an the desktop applications work locally and work in compleenormous expansion in Web reach. This would be a huge ment with browser-based applications. impetus for even more applications to migrate to the Web. In summary, the Web started with the browser. The Perhaps more interesting is Apple’s strategy for iPhone browser was an application to bridge PCs to the Web, but software development. Instead of third party applications the Web was confined to the browser. Now the Web is for the iPhone, Apple is pushing standardized Web techexpanding from PCs to billions of diverse mobile devices, nologies to expand iPhone applications. These technoloand escaping the limitations of the browser itself to the gies include XHTML, Javascript, AJAX (asynchronous computer desktop. Many people think of the Web as the Javascript and XML), CSS (cascading style sheets), and Internet. One might venture to say that the Web has W3C DOM (document object model). iPhone software grown beyond the Internet. In the future, people may developers can use the same Web Kit engine as the deskthink of the Web as the desktop. top Safari browser. As always, I invite your feedback. Contact me at The iPhone essentially works as a thin client for Web [email protected]. (The old address ‘[email protected]’ applications that are hosted on Web servers. The concept may not work due to a change of affiliations.) of Web applications is appealing: users do not need to be

16

IEEE Communications Magazine • September 2007