Someone will eat your lunch
Beware of Tim O’Reilly, Web 2.0, IE7, and broadband mobile devices.
April 1, 2006
There is absolutely no Internet surfer experience without a browser. But why did Microsoft, which professed to dominate in Internet-enabled applications as its core business, take browser so lightly that it had allowed Internet Explorer (IE) to age for the last five years without fundamental upgrades?
Many a Microsoft detractor views the software giant as a business strategist good at knocking off emerging competitors. Some believe Microsoft allows nimble players to R&D new applications, but it will not hesitate to move in to eat their lunch if situations warrant it.
You remember when Microsoft was an industry joke when it launched Internet Explorer 1.0 in August 1995? People thought Netscape was a better product for web browsing. Microsoft worked hard for six years to gain dominance in the browser war, and IE6.0 was finally introduced in October 2001, though still full of bugs. But IE6.0 was epoch-making as it effectively resulted in the premature retirement of Netscape, and Internet visionary Jim Barksdale. The web browser became but a conquered territory.
Ever since, Microsoft has retreated to the comfort zone of shrink-wrap software strategies, and invested extensively in xBox games console and asp.net development platform. IE remains version 6.0 in the last five years. Only recently did Microsoft announce the beta release of IE7.0 scheduled for the first half of 2006, and its final release during the second half this year.
Have alternative browsers Firefox and Safari threatened IE’s dominance? Yes and No. IE, by far, still remains the browser of choice for more than half of the PC users around the world. But yes, the worldwide web has mutated into the next generation, what Tim O’Reilly, the founder of publishing company O'Reilly Media, termed as Web 2.0.
This is compelling because since 2001, cellular technology has precipitated in the consumers’ unquenched yearn for mobility and mobile devices. Broadband has increased uptake and rich multimedia content distributable over multiple carriers, and Bill Gates called this “form factors”, have become the key driving force that propel new web applications.
O’Reilly, when he coined the term Web 2.0, he forewarned that the next generation Internet is going to be a battle over more database and content, with the user-generated content becoming the core. He quoted auction site eBay.com, image aggregator Flickr.com and online bookmark Deli.cio.us as the examples. This is what O’Reilly called the phenomenon of “increasing collective intelligence”.
In other words, the Next-Gen Internet, IPv6 aside, will see the domains of web development and content residing in the hands of business decision makers, web developers and designers. The end users will provide their lunch. And Microsoft appears to show its strong appetite on the lunch menu.
No less significant is the fact that the web surfing experience has been further enhanced with the adoption of AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, in the last two years. What common Internet users did not realise is that, with AJAX, web pages made to “feel” more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is designed to increase the Web page's interactivity, speed, and usability. In short, AJAX is suited to the lifestyle of the Net generation on-the-move.
I was at Las Vegas in Mid March to get an on-site preview of Microsoft’s Next-Gen web strategies revealed at the MIX06 conference. O’Reilly, no doubt a proponent of open standards, again reprised his role as the conversation partner to Bill Gates, who delivered a keynote address on Microsoft’s game plan in the near future.
O'Reilly, noted for his polite but no holds-barred questioning of his guests and hosts like, provided the sparks to Microsoft’s well-rehearsed marketing-speak. His Web 2.0 theory talks about a new wave of applications is emerging that takes advantage of Web-enabled flexibility to offer users innovative functionality unmatched by old-fashioned desktop applications. What have you got this time, he asked the Microsoft chairman point-blank.
Apparently, Microsoft has revisited the neglected Web development market, and has put together a showcase of ready-to-launch web user experience and web developer tools that include IE7, developer tools on Microsoft platform like Atlas (as usual, the Microsoft-flavoured version of AJAX), Microsoft Presentation Foundation, and the long-awaited Windows Vista.
There were traces of Microsoft pragmatism in not succumbing to “reinventing the wheel” syndrome as IE7 has apparently adopted and enhanced Firefox-like tabs, and Safari’s feel-and-look. But look out for Windows Vista, the new OS that will interface well with Bill Gates’ various ‘form factors’, the mobile devices for convergent content.
That will make Web 2.0 visibly exciting.