The capabilities of browser based applications have exploded in recent years. (This is especially important for ZENworks – as we move the management console to the new ZENworks Control Center.)
There is a breaking set of new ‘Web 2.0’ applications that use AJAX to deliver a really rich UI; Google Maps is probably the most well known; but I also love these:
I remember some of the contortions that had to turned just a few years ago to get anything even looking like this in a browser.
I saw some of the Hula calendar work when I was last in Cambridge – it all looked very slick.
TechCrunch is a great resource for tracking some of these new concepts.
I predict that these UIs will become prevalent on the most sticky sites; I also hope that a lot of the ‘cool’ and ‘sexy’ comes across into the more mundane enterprise IT world.
Ooh – netvibes is also pretty hot.