Unintentionally Blank

I know I am quite slow in posting my response to the above, life is very busy at the moment, but I wanted to make my feelings known. The story is that Mozilla has launched Prism as a Mozilla Labs project. Prism, carrying on from WebRunner, is a program that lets you take web applications to the desktop, with their own icons and windows. It is not meant to replace the web, but it has been created to blur the lines between the desktop and the web by allowing access to web services via icons on the desktop or in quick launch or the dock.

And…?

No, that is it. Prism allows you to access Gmail or Twitter, for example, in their own windows (like a browser but without the buttons or address bars) and with their own icon. The post on the Mozilla Labs site compares it to Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, but says that Prism is better as it is not a proprietary platform that is trying to replace the web. This is where I start to have a problem with the whole idea.

No-one Is Trying To Replace The Web

For a start, AIR and Silverlight are very different. From what I know, Silverlight is a competitor to Flash and has nothing to do with this argument as it relies on a browser plugin. Secondly, as Mike Chambers points out, “You could describe Adobe AIR in exactly the same way (just replace Prism with Adobe AIR and Firefox with Webkit).”. In fact, I actually found a web site that produces AIR apps from URLs just like what I expect to get out of Prism and after a quick look I was disappointed.

As far as I can see, AIR is not trying to replace the web, it is trying to extend the web. Creating AIR apps allows you to use desktop functionality such as dragging and dropping files and saving to a local database for offline use. I was disappointed with my brief look at Airifier because it added nothing to the web experience and that is the same for Prism. If I had a desktop version of Gmail I would expect to be able to read my emails when offline, AIR can do that, Prism can’t, do you see what I am getting at?

Web Sites For The Browser, Desktop Apps For The Desktop

I admit, I was excited earlier this month by the potential of Adobe AIR, but this isn’t why I am bashing Prism. There is a lot of interest in bringing the web to the desktop at the moment, but I want it to be for the right reasons. Having an icon I can click to access my favourite sites in different windows doesn’t really impress me, having a program that extends what I can do with my favourite sites does. Which is why I think that web sites should stay in the browser and if you can do more with them on the desktop then go ahead and make an app for it.

Perhaps Prism’s simplicity will be what attracts users (especially since there may be a 1 click option in upcoming versions of Firefox to create a Prism app from a site), but I want more from my desktop/web hybrid apps and will stick to following the progress of AIR for now.

What do you think? Is an icon and a separate window for a web site an exciting prospect or, like Read/Write Web, do you need more?

Continuing in my series of posts on different things to think about when considering web accessibility this week I want to look at JavaScript.

I actually had some inspiration in this post from my girlfriend. I accidentally left JavaScript disabled one night after doing some testing on a site and came home the next day to be told there was “something wrong with the internet.” I quickly realised what had happened and rectified the situation, but the sites that she thought had broken may surprise you. Three major ones caught my attention and there’s a fourth I’d like to mention as well.

Continue reading “Web Accessibility — Javascript” »

If you are interested in web design and development (I’m hoping this is the case anyway, otherwise I’m doing something wrong!) you definitely want to check out this list of the Top 100 User Centered Blogs by the Virtual Hosting Blog. There are some top names on the list that everyone has heard about as well as many other passionate writers about subjects including accessibility, usability, design and web standards.

Admittedly, I am very touched to have been included on the list, but I also think that the list could be a very good starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about the important side of design for the web: the users. I will be going through the list myself, inevitably picking up a lot of knowledge from the wealth of great bloggers/developers available. Let me know of any gems that you find.

Last week saw the Future of Web Apps conference come to London. I was there for day 2, listening to presentations from Facebook, Adobe and Yahoo! among others. With any luck, I also figured out what the future of web apps is from just one day, here is my impression of the presentations and exposition after a few days to think about it.

Continue reading “Future Of Web Apps: Day 2 In Detail” »

A year ago, Microsoft released the long awaited new version of the world’s most popular browser. Internet Explorer 7 swept in to replace the tired, old and fragile IE6. Developers got suitably excited at the prospect of spending less time banging their heads against the brick wall of standards support and bugs in IE6 and some even went as far as thinking about dropping support for IE6. Now we are a year on and IE6 is still the most popular browser, but Microsoft are doing something about it now.

Why Not To Download IE7

Some people were excited about IE7, but I was more skeptical and rightfully so it seems. You see, when you ban a third of your user base from installing your browser’s major update, just because they pirated your operating system, you run the risk of the update going unnoticed. And largely it has, IE6 stills rules the roost, Firefox continues to make gains and IE7 is still trying to get a footing on the browser stage.

Time To Move Forward Again

On Thursday, Microsoft announced that computers would no longer have to pass Windows Genuine Advantage checks in order to install IE7. It seems like an attempt to regain market from Firefox and move closer to booting IE6 out of the door. But re-including 200 million users can never be a bad thing.

Continue reading “Internet Explorer 7 Now Available To Everyone” »