Google is perhaps the biggest gun backing HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax. Its Gmail and Google Maps sites woke many up to the possibilities, and the company followed up with Google Docs for online word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Just because Google is doing something does not mean it is the right way, though, Becker said. "If you look at Google Apps, they're doing great things, but how many shops out there have the Ajax chops that Google does?"
Google is trying hard to give new ammunition to the HTML camp, in part by trying to advance the state of the art with an open source project called Gears.
Gears' flagship feature is offline access to Web applications such as Google's Web-based word processor, but it is also used to improve search at MySpace and speed blog posting with WordPress. Gears features that Google is considering for the future include desktop notifications to make Web apps more interactive, geolocation processing to let Web apps take advantage of where a Web user is located, and support for Webcams and microphones.
Gears, which like Flash and Sliverlight must be manually installed, has not spread widely. But adoption by some big services could help encourage people to install it, which might in turn encourage Web site operators to support it.
Google's Gmail could be the service to trigger a Gears adoption cascade.
"We expect Gears to be widely adopted in products like Gmail," said Sundar Pichai, a vice president of product management at Google, and there are signs Gears-enhanced Gmail might arrive soon.
Meanwhile, Yahoo has its own browser extension technology called BrowserPlus. It is limited to a few Yahoo demo applications right now, such as a more elaborate Web-based tool to upload images to the Flickr photo-sharing site.
Henrickson is intrigued by BrowserPlus and said Zimbra has been experimenting with it. It "bridges the gap" between Web applications and the abilities of a local computer, he said, letting programmers "access the file system, make system calls into the computer, drag and drop, access the Webcam."
But here is a thorny question: are Gears and BrowserPlus really in the same camp as HTML and JavaScript? BrowserPlus, at least for now, is proprietary, and Gears is certainly no standard. Both must be downloaded and installed, just like Flash or Silverlight plug-ins.
Google, though, sees Gears as an HTML ally. "Gears can be ahead of the curve, trying out new ideas that eventually become a new standard," Gears engineer Aaron Boodman said. And when new standards duplicate Gears features, Google "will reimplement in Gears," Pichai said.
Flash and bang
Flash and its new rival Silverlight offer some compelling advantages such as audio- and video-streaming support that make them indispensable for some Web applications.
Photo editing shows off what Flash can do, for example. Start-up Picnik uses Flash to that end, and Adobe has an online rival called Photoshop Express. Neither come close to the full features of Photoshop CS3, but both are impressive displays of serious editing abilities.
"Nothing really comes close to the kind of desktop experience we have in Picnik," said Chief Technology Officer Darrin Massena, and that will not change for a long time until HTML standards such Canvas or SVG arrive.
And even if those features do become HTML standards, "it'll take an incredibly long time to see it implemented across browsers and a long time to see high level of compatibility where you can really rely on it without a huge productivity drain on developers", he said.
Meanwhile, HTML is not the only one improving. Flash and Silverlight are moving targets too.
"With Adobe's rev of Flash player, version 10, they've done a remarkable job of knocking out key things. We had a conversation a year and a half (ago) where we gave them a wish list. They have been really responsive," Massena said.
Features in Flash Player Version 10 currently in beta version 2, include 3D graphics, special effects, and better video streaming, hardware-accelerated graphics, and text control.
And though Silverlight is not good enough for Picnik to "think about switching horses", the progress from version 1 to the current beta of Silverlight 2 is promising: "If they take a similar-sized leap in short order, say a year's time frame, they could be in the game," Massena said. "If they are the first to nail 3D, that could give developers a lot of reasons to use their technologies."
That is exactly what Becker promises. "We're going to be iterating pretty quickly, and each version is going to add new features and functionality," Becker said. The final version of Silverlight 2 will be released later this year, added Brian Goldfarb, group product manager for developer platforms at Microsoft.
A key part of Microsoft's Silverlight sales pitch is programmer productivity. It is based on the same C# and VB.net languages used in Microsoft's .Net programming technology, so a lot of coders already have a big head start, and Microsoft's highly regarded programming tools can be used.
Flash, too, has rich programming tools, not to mention some tight links with tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator that are useful for application design. And since Internet users relatively swiftly update their Flash software to the latest version, it is a much more stable and consistent programming foundation.
It is clear no single technology will dominate in the near future at least--each camp's advocates acknowledge their rivals' advantages. But some see the situation not as chaos but as innovation at its best.
"The Web platform is getting richer and richer," Boodman said. "I think we're living in one of the most active periods of Web development right now."
This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.
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Flash, HTML, Ajax: Which will prevail?
Your author has shown his inability to get across the current "tug of war" (if there indeed is one amongst the lead developers) of technology on the web at this stage.
"Flash, HTML, Ajax: Which will prevail?" is so nonsensical to those who understand the technologies that it makes one wonder where the editor was prior to publishing. First, while full flash sites still exist on the web, a far better use of the technology is to enhance any site with the ability to play audio and video. Scott Schiller's SoundManager2 API successfully allows for the control of audio and video via elements in the DOM. As proposed, the audio and video elements for x/html would not provide the level of control that is currently possibly with Flash. As for "HTML v AJAX", AJAX is simply the call made to a server asynchronously (ie no need for a page refresh) to push or pull content. AJAX by itself cannot operate as it needs some form of user interaction to allow a call to be made - this may be from traditional HTML or embedded movies (aka Flash) within the page.
As for Silverlight, with flash's near ubiquity as a plug in for enhanced media Microsoft has left their run far too late, not to mention that being behind the legacy that refuses to die (IE6, launched prior to September 11, 2001), developers are barely ambling over to take a look let alone jump in and make it their platform of choice.
PS: please have someone overhaul this form. An input, type submit, is the correct means for submitting a form - not an anchor with javascript embedded in the href attribute.
Posted by Joel on Thursday, May 14 2009 12:22 PM