The hot topic today is offline web apps, with Zimbra having just released an offline version of its web collaboration suite. As Dan Farber noted, Zoho and ThinkFree are two other Web Office vendors to have either released offline access or have plans to. Also Stan at franticindustries has a nice post explaining how offline capabilities can help web apps work better. So for this week's poll, we're asking: what other web apps would you like to see have offline access. I've listed some popular web 2.0 apps below in a poll, so let us know which of those you'd like to see with offline access. You can select more than one. Also feel free to note others in the comments...
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Google Reader without a doubt. For most of the other services I either use desktop alternatives (like Outlook over Gmail) or they don't have the same value for me offline (Flickr, del.icio.us).
Posted by: Ryan Stewart | March 26, 2007 3:51 AM
For me, it's not so much about being able to use an application when you're offline, but more about not having to care if you're online or offline at all.
In this light, the applications which are intended to be used very often should work in all conditions. All office suites fall under this definition; personally, I'd also like to see Google Calendar working both offline and online, as well as Netvibes, at least to some degree.
Posted by: Stan Schroeder | March 26, 2007 5:17 AM
Bloglines, please .....
Posted by: hombrelobo | March 26, 2007 5:36 AM
GMail, Flickr, del.icio.us and Google Reader. With GMail that includes the Calendaring app.
And "Use Outlook/Thunderbird" is not a good enough reply IMO. I use GMail for its great interface and wouldn't want to have to switch when offline (though currently I do of course.)
Posted by: Paul M. Watson | March 26, 2007 5:54 AM
I agree with my buddy Stan, Google Calendar is a perfect candidate, although I'm not sure about Netvibes. At least the way I use it, 90% of its usefulness comes from live online information.
Posted by: Berislav Lopac | March 26, 2007 6:03 AM
A perfect candidate is http://moneytrackin.com and other personal finance web applications, because you could acces your data everywhere and without internet connection
Posted by: Victor | March 26, 2007 6:29 AM
I'd like to see an "offline service" open source code library, so developers can add this functionality easily.
Posted by: Uri L. | March 26, 2007 9:22 AM
I knew I'd forget something... Bloglines, Google Reader etc is a natural choice.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | March 26, 2007 11:33 AM
I would like to have Google Calendar and Google Reader offline.
Like someone said before, I too use Gail for it's great interface.
Posted by: Piku | March 26, 2007 11:34 AM
Vtiger or Sugar CRM would be nice for offline access .
Posted by: Rishi | March 26, 2007 4:06 PM
Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Reader for me. All online office suites should have an offline version if they are to be widely adopted.
Posted by: willw | March 26, 2007 8:14 PM
All of the above.... bring on firefox 3 and hope the other browsers catch on!
Posted by: Malcolm | March 26, 2007 9:44 PM
Google Apps =)
Posted by: Acronyms | March 26, 2007 10:02 PM
perhaps the advent of apollo will bring these web apps to the desktop with vigor!
Posted by: Michael Lambie | March 26, 2007 11:08 PM
A GTD application such as Vitalist, could be great offline.
Posted by: Andres | March 27, 2007 2:13 PM
Would like to see as an offline version. (in a perfect world I'd like bubbl.us or something similar integrated with my calendar, mail and docs)
Posted by: aesop | March 28, 2007 4:51 AM
what we can say if in Fall 2007 we will have Photoshop online?
Posted by: tobto | March 29, 2007 2:49 PM
i'd like to see alot of sites to have offline messages i know yahoo does and i like it bcuz me and my friends are usually on at different times and if i have something important to tell them i can leave them an offline message.....it's all just so easy!!!
Posted by: Ashley | April 2, 2007 6:46 AM