Dev Chair : Web 2.0 and future of desktop blogging clients

With all the new and shiny Web 2.0 applications coming out, one may easily be convinced that desktop applications are breathing their last breath. At least that's what Google would like you to think about Google Apps, and its chances against rival Microsoft Office.

On the blogging front, most of the popular blogging systems (Blogger, Vox, TypePad, WordPress, etc.) have incorporated some degree of rich/WYSIWYG editor to make life easier for bloggers. Some of them integrate with other Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Vox with Flickr and YouTube, Flickr with blog systems) to allow users aggregate their disparate content. Does this mean the slow death of desktop blogging clients?


As the developer of ecto for Windows, I do not think this will be the case but, I do think the role of desktop blogging clients will be changed and diminished. Before the slickness of Web 2.0 applications, users stored their notes, photos and videos on their computers. So an offline desktop blogging client makes sense as users compose blog post and include other media content from their local collection. But as Web 2.0 applications improve and provide smoother and richer user experiences, users begin storing their content online instead. This allows a complete online workflow and is fantastic for mobile users as well, since they can work on their laptop while traveling then finish it up on their desktop once they get back to the office/home without the complicate process of syncing the two computers.

So it would seem that there will no longer be a need for a desktop blogging client to manage their content. But what if there is no internet connection? While municipal Wi-Fi networks are springing up in many metro cities (notably San Francisco, Portland, etc.), airlines are considering installing Wi-Fi access points on planes, internet connections are still not ubiquitous. There are still many instances where internet connection is either not available or provided by a service for which the user has not signed up with. What users need then is the ability to edit their content while not connected to the internet. These are the instances where an offline desktop blogging client shines. Users can continue to work on their blog post while disconnected and publish the content when the next access point becomes available. This would be impossible with a web application.

What Web 2.0 has done though is changed the nature of desktop blogging clients. Most of the clients now include features that integrate with Web 2.0 applications. We rely on online content so much nowadays that it is almost impossible to work in isolation on the desktop without touching, let's say, Google or Wikipedia.

"Web 2.0 desktop application", that is what I would categorize them. Oxymoronic, I agree, but it also describes neatly the nature of these desktop applications.

Tags: blogger, ecto, flickr, google, microsoft, portland, san francisco, SanFrancisco, typepad, vox, web 2.0, Web2.0, wi-fi, wikipedia, wordpress, youtube