Distributed Apps and Significance of Google Maps

With every passing day it seems more clear that distributed applications and especially web applications are the future of the application world. Only yesterday, Google introduced its Maps product, which once again has a great look and feel to it and pushes the limits of DHTML.

By pushing these boundaries, especially with their web GUIs, and reducing response time Google is setting a standard for web applications. By doing so, they are helping push HTML as the API of choice for many applications. Certainly those applications that have a self contained data storage component, which is shared by the users falls in this category (eg. Maps, book lookup, what about an RSS reader?, etc), as well, some of the applications that used to be thought of as desktop only apps, have now been turning to the HTML world (eg. email client, bug-tracking ... ).

This trend is changing the desktop world as we knew it in the past. This is also one of big reasons why Google is such a threat to Microsoft and potentially other desktop reliant companies; since by pushing web technology, Google is inevitably pushing its development and improvement by creating the demand for richer web technologies; not to mention causing more businesses to consider the web as the medium of choice.

References
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Joel Spolsky - How Microsoft Lost the API war