Revisiting iCloud and the webtop sector recently I decided to put pen to paper, well you know what I mean, to spell out what I would want to see in a webtop service. For those unfamiliar with the term, webtops are a sort of replacement computers that sits webside and have all the services you are familiar with incorporated into them. By this I mean they will have word processing, spreadsheet and calendar modules built in, plus other functionality like being able to upload your music and stream it while you are working on your data.
The problem I found is that webtops are flaky and prone to be developed with what the software engineer wants and thinks other people want rather than work from the user level upwards. Webtop developers are finding it a hard market to monetise and some, like G.hos.t have literally given up the ghost and gone to cloud heaven. This is a blessing in disguise because most of them were, quite frankly, unusable and simply appalling.
So what do I want in a webtop?
- I want integration with my existing email accounts, not use whatever proprietary email system the webtop has on offer
- I want to upload documents from Google Docs, Zoho, MS Office or OpenOffice and edit them in the webtop
- I want a calendar that syncs with other iCal offerings like Google Calendar
- I want the ability to place icons for my most used apps on the “desktop” and not have to drill through menu layers to get at them
- In photo folders I want to see thumbnails, not clickable icons because I’ve probably forgotten what 23645859696bn564.jpg is!
- If I use a webtop word processor it has to have 80 per cent of the functions of a desktop module – I know I’m fussy
- I want a mobile module so even with my Symbian phone I can access documents etc and not have to buy a bloody iPhone (iCloud mobile works fine)
- I want it to work across all browsers and operating systems in case I decide to go Linux or, horror-shock, Apple!
- I want to customise the look of the webtop – backgrounds, icons, etc not be stuck with what a developer thinks is cool
- I want to work alone not have some link to other users worldwide – there are other avenues for that
So what would you like to see in a webtop?
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