A small step for Google, a giant leap for web: Google chrome apps for desktop.

Want to see what the future software is going to be like? Right now:

1. Click the Chrome menu  on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Tools.
3. Select Create application shortcuts.
4. In the dialog that appears, choose where you'd like the shortcuts to be placed on your computer.
5. Click Create and then launch your app from the shortcut

You probably realized that the application shortcut created above, when launched, is nothing but a website running in a browser without the usual UI of browser. It does look like an otherwise normal program but the similarity ends there. Now imagine, if the same app can access your web cam for video chat or your USB devices (e.g your mobile phone)  or your graphics card for playing games! Voila! You have imagined a Google chrome app for desktop!

On September 5, Google released a new feature addition for Google Chrome browser: Chrome apps for desktop. These applications are very similar to websites but can be launched and run just like a normal desktop software (e.g a media player). With web apps now backed by Google, they will become much more useful(can be used even without internet) and ubiquitous(games, image editing, media player are/will soon be available as web apps): you can see for yourself at the official announcement page and of course by installing one of the apps for desktop.

A fairly advanced web app: Lucidchart

Sure, it's nothing new as a concept; apps which look and feel like desktop software but can run on any platform have been around for quite some time. Apps written in Java, Flash and Adobe Air can all do that with varying degrees of success, one major problem being that they first require a plugin to be installed before any of them can be used and none of them had the same look and feel as normal programs.

In a sense, web apps are an extension of the idea behind Java, Adobe Air (platform independent, consistent look and feel etc) with some important difference:

• Web apps are written in the ubiquitous HTML language
• Web apps too require a plugin - your browser!
• A web app will not have the same look and feel as the normal programs on your computer but there is a difference: you have got used to the different look and feel of websites!

The ubiquity of web apps will also have some important consequences for the future of computer industry:

One, since everything from games to a notepad to an office application will run as web app, the operating system will lose its importance. People will care less and less whether their desktop/laptop/phone runs Windows/iOS/Linux or Chrome OS. Operating Systems will of course matter but it will be very easy to switch loyalties between different OSes. This possibly has grave consequences for  OS(for PC) centered companies(read Microsoft) 

  

Two, since web apps will do most of the processing in the cloud(e.g you shoot a bullet in the game on your laptop but the calculations for the trajectory of the bullet will be calculated on Google's servers), devices can be lighter and thinner and last longer.No need to go berserk over 5GHz processor and 16GB RAM!  This possibly will have grave consequences for consumer focused PC processor manufacturers(read Intel) 

Welcome to the future driven by web!