Web Rewrites, Platforms, and Ads

by April 27, 2005

Web Page Rewrites

"A user of Gmail was able to add persistent search folders to the application. Now I use search folders in Gmail every day, the feature is indistinguishable from the core application, and it was created by a user. This kind of customization makes the already attractive notion of software as a service even more compelling. Imagine that your company subscribes to a hosted web app, and it's mostly great, but there are a couple of features you wish you could offer your people, and the vendor isn't coughing them up in a timely way. In an AJAX world you might have a pretty good shot at doing it yourself.” -Web page rewriting is a hot topic that's about to go nuclear

Web Platforms

“With its $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe Systems is buying into a crucial battle to shape the next generation of Web application development. While Adobe, with its PDF and Photoshop software, has generally held its own in the battle against Microsoft, analysts say the most pitched battle between the companies will come as software providers vie to provide the platform of choice for next-generation Web-based application development.” -This merger is about gaining dominance in the browser applications market

Web Ads

Folks often remark how clean and ad-free Google keeps their Web applications. Much of it is a testament to the company’s design philosophy and process. But there’s also the fact that Google has lathered the rest of the World Wide Web with ads. Few useful sites remain AdWords/AdSense free and image ads are imminent as “Google announced a "limited beta" for AdWords/AdSense that allows advertisers to advertisers run image ads and animated gifs.” RSS feeds aren’t safe either.