• Business 2.0, Monday, October 23, 2006 11:02 AM

You've heard this before: The browser is the new operating system. Netscape founder Mark Andreessen was famously squashed by Bill Gates and his desktop application empire after making such bold statements 10 years ago. But now, Web-based apps from Google and others are making Andreessen sound like a man ahead of his time.

A browser change is underway, writes Om Malik of Business 2.0: "After puttering along for a decade, browser technology is about to undergo a major upgrade, which could once again make the browser the center of the Web action. The biggest change: Soon you'll be able to take your Web applications 'to go' and work offline."

Where does Microsoft fit into that kind of future? Currently, its software (MS Office, which includes Word, Excel PowerPoint and others) and Windows make up a huge chunk of its revenue. And it costs you money, although you might not realize it when it comes as a PC bundle. Google's docs and spreadsheets, on the other hand, offer nearly the same service--but for free, and accessed over the Web. Gmail and Google Calendar, meanwhile, are Google's Web-based answers to Outlook.

With these programs, no software will be downloaded on your hard drive, and everything is free. Wherever you can access the Web, you can access your work. No floppy disks, no zip drives, no problems--right? Your data lives on the Web, but is also accessible and savable offline. Malik points out that developers are also suddenly free to write Web-based programs that are software and operating system agnostic. That's a scary proposition for any company that has built its business on proprietary formats (i.e., Microsoft).

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