Bye bye, Windows (and good riddance). Browser based apps are the hype of the day, not just since Google buying Upstartle for its word processor Writely. Every minute a new app since to get its launch. And with goowy, we finally might be able to replace the ubiquos Outlook. Or. Maybe not.
Goowy definitely looks good. And it’s a complete desktop solution, offering browser based email, calendaring, contact management and some miniature apps called minis.
The interface is nice and smooth – and more or less completely Flash-based. So is it the über-Outlook, accesible from every computer all over the world? Unfortunately, the answer is: no.
First thing: Online apps are a nice thing to have. But even nicer would be a seamless combination of offline app on my machine and a 100% synchronized online version. I’m a pure notebook user. Meaning, even in the age of UMTS, WLAN and (maybe) WiMAX, unfortunatley I’m not always on. And sometimes, the data might just trickle in GPRS speed. One thing’s for sure: you don’t want to run a flash app like this.
An secondly: emails, contacts, calendaring means highly sensitive data. Who are those goowies anyway? Four friends in San Diego makes a nice story. But do I really want to hand over my live to four guys in Southern California I’ve never met? No offence, Alex, Gary, Jeremy and Sashi. Same question would apply to Larry and Sergey or anybody else who offers me to take care of everything but the kitchen sink and all for free.
Web apps are great. But please: give me a local copy of the app and the data.
Via Read/WriteWeb: Review of Goowy, a Flash and Ajax desktop suite
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