Enjoy the ride!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkgMJLcgygQ

As to the evolution of “cloud computing” or server based, internet deployed, applications delivered to appliances - some forms of this are now happening across the board with all types of applications. And it seems certain to continue. It makes good sense for the software vendors ’cause they can rent the software and reduce cost of manufacture and distribution even further. For the end user who needs the latest and greatest word processor or spreadsheet or other relatively small application this is a great solution. But old Excel 3.0 or even old DOS based Lotus 123 and programs like Word and Word Perfect will work forever for most word processing and spreadsheet applications. So really the thin client, net deployed app is a solution that makes little economic sense for most users.

Stronger apps like Photo Shop, Final Cut, Shake, etc require lots of memory, drive space and fancy processor clock cycles with a really rich instruction set. Browser based application delivery will struggle to provide what is needed there for a long time.

Perhaps as Google Earth begins to include more and more ability in the interface model we will see a rich client / deep server computing paradigm put into production that accomplishes big things for all of us as social, economic, and information society interactors. Kind of a social, economic, information equivalent of SAP ERP as used in the “Big Businesses” of the planet created to benefit just plan people.

New World / No Borders

- Thank You Google for being a great tool builder.

“Vision and Reach / Integration and Delivery - Triumph” - would have been a better headline for the post.

Robert Curtis
Santa Rosa Beach
Florida

What do you do when power and infrastructure’s been cut-off completely, and all you have left is a generator and a laptop — in a disaster stricken region — and you’re relying on an application that can run to visualize the region in a context prior to the flood waters having overpowered and obscured the landscape, or the smoke has filled the valleys, or the tornados have ripped up the ground like a giant weed-whacker?

Do you rely on a server-side solution?

So basically to your article…poppycock!

Ken

I mean, if we’re going to start some silly rumors, why not start with that?

or you can go directly to picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zo.....amp;size=o
I apologize in advance if anyone thinks this is off topic but I thought that #45 would be interested.

Yesterday, TechCrunch’s Duncan Riley published a post highlighting the news of Google’s feature enhancements and additions to the company’s Maps utility. And he proposed a question: “Is Google Earth on borrowed time?”
No…

Google Earth (and almost any other desktop app) has incredible advantages over the web, but only for the moment. In my opinion things are moving back towards the client/server model such as Terminal Services or Citrix, virtual machines, etc. The web is just an extension of that.

After all, what is the difference between a “local” app versus an “Internet” app? Only the execution platform. A local app has full access to the available hardware. An Internet app is confined to the browser environment. It all still executes on your machine and, after that, data is just simply data.

Really, the main thing holding back Internet based apps is the browser itself. I could easily see future browsers allowing Flash, Silverlight, etc to interact with any available hardware acceleration, such as graphic cards. Faster engines for JavaScript and other popular interpretive languages would also be necessary.

I’m guessing on the bottleneck here. Perhaps a future version of Silverlight, Flash, et al will be able to take advantage of 3D hardware without newer browsers.

With “disconnected Internet apps” making use of offline features from companies like Google and Adobe the term “Internet App” is starting to loose its original confined definition.

If you have an “Internet App” that goes offline, even though it runs in the browser is it still an Internet App? If the offline portion can be compiled to run on the native machine (many offline projects are going this route) is it still an Internet app or is it now a local app?

Right now you download Google Earth and run it on your own hardware. Yet you got the initial app from the Internet, and most all the data used to provide the content is streaming from the Internet. Why isn’t this an Internet app?

Once the bottle neck issues get solved, or as programs get further and further away from browser dependency, there will be no such thing as an Internet App.

Years ago (~1996) when I worked in software retail and the Internet was starting to become mainstream, I was telling customers that in the near future all our apps would be hosted through a service provider and only our data and the O/S would be on our hard drives. While we aren’t quite there, and it looks as if our data may indeed be hosted online as well, this is still the direction I see things going.

In the next 5 years this is what I can easily see being my typical vacation routine:
Walk into an Internet Café. Logging onto Flickr and uploading the digital photos I’ve taken on my trip. Logging onto Adobe’s site giving me access to the software I’ve “purchased”. Running Adobe Photoshop Elements to quickly retouch my photos directly from Flicker. Finally posting my favorites to my blog.

While the brands, apps, and other details may change in my scenario, the basic point it this: As a user I will have access to all my data and applications from any Internet capable computer (device?) and, as a user, I wont even care about the “how”.

That’s where things are going, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see it this way (or pretty darn close) in the next 5 years.

Robert Curtis
Santa Rosa Beach
Florida

Another notable feature is that of posting mini-blogs on the map. This will give our users an ear-on-the-ground for whats happening in the neighborhood. Some have also used this feature to highlight civic issues.

Facebook integration allows FB users to access SadakMap by first securely logging into Facebook. All users get a SpotMeUrl - its there personal beacon for where they are on the map and whats happening around them.

Now with Google working towards offering similar features, you know what will become of us Nevertheless, we will keep striving to find a niche.

Do give us a try.

Regards,
Unmesh Mayekar
Founder, SadakMap.com
SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh
(PS: the map initially center’s around India - but the features are applicable worldwide)

-Yonatan

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Seriously, on this subject you’re as deeply wrong as possible. Think your logic over and try again.