Online Everything Is Getting Closer

I moved to using e-mail on the web in the mid 1990s with Yahoo! Mail. It was the best thing since slice bread for me. Prior to using Yahoo! Mail exclusively for my personal email, I was always on the wrong computer or at the wrong place when I wanted to access my e-mail folders containing the e-mail with information I needed where I was. This scenario could be while at home needing to access a work e-mail or while at work and having to access a home e-mail. Keeping track of the e-mail accounts and which computers could access it was just a pain.

To make a long productivity story, once I moved 100% to web e-mail, the problem just disappeared and is now a no-brainer. I do not understand the number of people I know who are still tied to thick client e-mail (MS-Outlook) today. Why? Who knows.

Well if you are still using your thick client calendar or e-mail, then you are stuck in the 1990s. With Yahoo! Calendar and most recently Google Calendar and the ease of collaboration over the web only requiring that you have access to the internet using any browser, I just don't understand the folks I hear talk about Outlook and wishing they were at home to access their personal email while away from home. Huh!?! Hello?! It's the 21st century and that is an old 1990s problem. Why are you still stuck in the 1990s?

Well, with the recent release of Google Spreadsheets and Google's acquisition of Writely, I think the days of being tied to a thick client for spreadsheets and word-processing are numbered. The only pieces missing is a nice web-based presentation application and a quick webtop database for business productivity. I suspect this will happen within the next year.

I can think of a few other web apps that would be nice replacement for their thick client equivalents, however for now I'd like to reserve some room for innovation in 2007. By the way, I just got my Google Spreadsheet account today and have already been inspired with a few ideas for its use within the first few minutes of using it. As for the "Online Everything" concept, I think this was dubbed Web 2.0 last year.