Jim Regan -- Site Reviews
apps.com
|
Microsoft recently unveiled plans for a new, "bet-the-company" strategy called Microsoft.NET - a strategy that includes taking applications such as Word and Excel off the hard drive and relocating them to the Web, for users to access through their browsers.
While these plans represent a significant shift in focus for Microsoft, the idea of Web-based applications is hardly a new one (as is the case with many, if not most, of Microsoft's 'innovations'). And, as Microsoft.NET is still a year or two away, those who'd like an introduction to some of the Web applications already available online might want to visit Apps.com - which has a few thousand that you can try right now.
Launched in mid-May, Apps.com's aim is to provide a 'one-stop shopping' site for online applications, which, since they operate through your browser, eliminate such petty annoyances as installation, upgrades, or concerns about whether a given application will work with your platform or operating system.
Well, not entirely eliminate. Some of these apps will only work after an 'enabling' program is installed on your hard drive. Others, (such as virus scans) are by their very nature platform-specific (as are the virii being scanned for). Add the differences in the ways that Microsoft and Macintosh -- not to mention Netscape and Explorer -- implement such Web 'standards' as Java, and there are bound to be a fair number of less-than-universal applications. Still, with more than five thousand examples to choose from, there's a pretty good chance of finding a substitute for any uncooperative first choices.
And just what kind of applications can be found on the Web? Some, you doubtless already know about - online e-mail programs and storage, translators, and browser-based games are all over the net. Others, such as loan and salary calculators, resume generators, currency converters, and online planetaria may be less well known. Still others are purely commercial, ("Build Your BMW") and a few may simply leave the visitor wondering about their creators. Granted, a few people may find a use for a Vanity License Plate Generator, or a Sock Calculator, (which generates customized sock knitting directions) and others may derive some perverse pleasure from using a 2000 dollar computer and multi-million dollar internet infrastructure to access a virtual slide-rule, (or abacus) but it takes a 'special' mind to program virtual 'snappable bubble wrap', or "Experience California" (which simulates an earthquake on your computer screen).
All the applications -- good, bad and bizarre -- are accessible by directory or keyword search, while "AppPacks" offer pre-selected sets of applications assembled for specific interests. Groups of listings can be sorted alphabetically or by their 'quality rating,' (as judged by previous users) and each entry uses icons to tell the visitor if a given application requires such helpers as Java or Shockwave, if a download is necessary, or if there is a fee involved.
A key to the icons is available on the FAQ page, although some browsers will actually display a description when the mouse pointer is placed over each symbol. (My Mac's Explorer 5 did, but Navigator 4.0.6 didn't.) New listings are highlighted, as are any special instructions necessary to find or operate the application, and 'refined' keyword searches allow the visitor to exclude results based on such factors as the use of Shockwave...or money.
As with so many sites, personalization is an option, and in this case (assuming you're comfortable with the site's Privacy Policy) not a bad idea for 'frequent fliers.' Registered users can store their favorite programs in one spot, and access their collection from any computer attached to the net.
So, if you feel like sampling the oft-predicted Brave New World of Web Apps, you now know where to start your explorations. Doubtless, Microsoft.NET will offer the concept on a much grander scale, but they're not ready yet - and even when they are, they're not likely to be offering a Juggling Pattern Animator, a Washed-up Celebrity Dunking Booth, or a Bill Gates personal wealth calculator (currently at 183% of all the gold in Fort Knox).
Apps.com can be found, appropriately enough, at http://apps.com/.