I’ve been putting together an article about why web browsers are so important for publication on another web site and it’s really made me think about the implications of AIR for the web.
The web is all about content, right? And to access the content we need to start somewhere. A search engine, a bookmark, a URL we’ve memorised. These all require us to fire up a web browser. Web browsers are our window onto the web.
Interrupting The Search Chain
Our start page in our web browser influences what information we will find, what tangents we go off on and what advertising we view.
At the moment, if I want to check my Google analytics account, I fire up my browser. Now, Analytics isn’t my home page, Google is, and I’ve got a couple of news feeds on there so there’s scope to go off at a tangent.
Applications like the Analytics Reporting Suite built in AIR would just deliver you straight there.
Is this better? Is it worse? Neither. It’s just different. It’s only subtle, but it is different. Content is certainly still King, but will the web browser remain the gatekeeper?
Like RSS feeds, desktop applications such as those built using AIR will help us interact with the web without necessarily going “on” the web. That opens up another battle ground for the search engines and advertisers.
The Acceleration of CSS3 Adoption
For AIR developers of the HTML variety (as opposed to the purely Flash/Flex variety) AIR could be a bit of a playground.
For once, we will know exactly how our HTML will render, because AIR uses WebKit as its rendering engine. While that’s nice because it places us in a hitherto unknown Utopia of only having to deal with one “browser”, stripping away a whole layer of testing and potential compromises, it’s also important for another reason.
WebKit is leading the field in implementing CSS3 features. AIR applications could well be the proving ground for the new CSS3 techniques that we will all have to learn.
The iPod Effect
AIR apps are pretty. AIR apps are nicer to use than most web apps. AIR will be cool. That can go a long way in the adoption of a new product whether it’s any good or not.
Like the iPhone, I think AIR will have a ripple effect on the landscape, not by dominating the market, but by setting the tone and by setting client expectations.
Nobody expects Apple to trounce Nokia, but all of the major mobile manufacturers have to follow Apple’s lead, at least for the immediate future.
AIR Matters Because Adobe Matters
Finally, AIR is being delivered by Adobe and since their acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe have become the web company. That could have gone horribly wrong, but they have improved many of Macromedia’s products and made important decisions in standardising formats and handing over technologies to the web community.
They are also putting efforts into making sure that Flash and AIR are going to be on a par for Linux which not only matters on the desktop, but in the plethora of mobile web devices out there.
Adobe seem to be simultaneously reading the future of the web correctly and managing to shape it and that has to be a recipe for success.
Filed under: Adobe Air, Apple, New Technology, Web Browsers, Web Standards, Accessibility and Best Practice , adobe, air, css3, iphone, macromedia, webkit
Adobe Air webkit does not support CSS3 yet. It doesn’t even support some of webkit attributes such as -webkit-transform, -webkit-transition