Weil die Artikel auf die ich mich hier beziehe englisch sind, ist meiner auch in englisch 🙂

Sarah Perez wrote at ReadWriteWeb a quite provocative article about the AIR technology. She is arguing that AIR applications could also be running easily in the browser — mainly when one uses her advertised and beloved Chrome. But well, she was looking mainly at Twitter clients and some video streaming applications. Of course, such things could also be running in the browser, indeed they are! But those applications are extensions to those Web services and that they are not that revolutionary then, might get clear when you think about it a minute (or two).

AIR is not about using Web services — I already claimed that in a comment to the article. It’s about that an ordinary Web developer (like I would like to call myself in the near future 😉 ) can quickly build a Desktop application with just a modicum of effort and by using existing skills. Yes, AIR applications are mostly RIAs, so they probably will make use of some Web service or at least use a connection to the internet for something. But still, I think this is not the point in using AIR. When it’s just about a Web service, than you could also use AJAX and remain in the browser.

Ryan Stewart said something, I totally agree to: „Web developers are a creative and innovative bunch.“ AIR brings all this ideas and energy from the Web straight to the Desktop with as little detour as possible. So I think, when talking about AIR, you should not just look to Twitter clients or so. And moreover, don’t look just from the end-user’s view. This technology is still quite young and has been hyped at the beginning with this small widgets. But there are much more possibilities inside!