Are browers living on borrowed time?

Are today's ultra-rich Internet apps outgrowing the timeworn browser window?

Take a stroll with Contributing Editor Neil McAllister through tomorrow's
Web, in Do new Web tools spell doom for the browser? McAllister tours the companies working to push the Web beyond today's browser and calls into question the browser's ability to fulfill the needs of today's rich Internet apps.

Don't pen the browser eulogies just yet, though: Not everyone agrees that moving Web apps outside the browser is the right approach.

McAllister concludes that "despite differences in approach between AIR and Gears, Adobe and Google actually share a common vision. Both companies aim to extend the current Web browsing experience with new features that allow developers to deliver RIAs more easily. And, because Web developers, too, have diverse goals and methods, the traditional browser is unlikely to disappear as an application-delivery platform, even as desktop-based Web apps proliferate.

Posted by Caroline Craig on May 12, 2008 07:10 AM