The Case Against Web Applications
The recent release of the Google Suggest has the community buzzing with amazement, grand predictions, frantic reverse engineering, and hectic explanations.
Ever the contrarian, I would like to pour some cold water onto the whole circus. Think, people, think!
Here's some questions to ask:
- What is the essential feature of the browser that made Google Suggest possible?
- When did this feature first appear in a browser? Which browser? What version?
- Why haven't we been using it for the many years since the feature first appeared?
- Who invented this feature? What is he doing now?
- How much did it cost to develop Google Suggest?
- What kind of processing power and bandwidth is needed to host the server side components in support of this feature?
Now, for something completely different: Who is Kevin Gibbs? Which company does he work for? What does he do during the 80% of the time when he's not doing the "20% time, any project you want" thing?
Finally, just to make it sting a little for the JavaBlogs crowd: Was it written in Java? J2EE? IoC Containers? Or was it written in Python (Paul Graham-ish grin)?
Now, my challenge: Do you have a little bitty search box on your blog? Now go ahead and make it behave just like Google Suggest!