Mousespeak Terms

Alternative operating systems, like the Apple Mac OS and the hitherto geek-driven Linux, will not make major advances onto your desktop, and will give way to a new challenger in this space, the WebOS, a virtual desktop on the web equipped with built-in applications. Rumours about a GoogleOS aside, this year will increasingly see more and more applications finding their way home on the Net, rather than via your desk (more on that later). The advantages are obvious—work on an internet environment and do pretty much everything you do on your PC from anywhere around the globe, with just any PC and an internet connection. YouOS.com and goowy.com, among others, are the proof of the pudding.

Office Productivity—Apps on the Web: Windows Vista isn't the only major upgrade expected from the folks at Redmond. A new, improved version of Office is expected to retail even as I write this. With revamped business intelligence and collaboration features, Office 2007 may be the shot in the arm Microsoft needs against a score of web productivity applications that replicate basic features—document editing, spreadsheets, presentations—of any capable productivity suite. And for free, no less! No typo here—web office online! Google's acquisitions in this space last year culminated in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, web-based equivalents of Word and Excel, with full support for importing and exporting most popular file formats. Agreed, these apps are a stunted shadow of their desktop counterparts. But considering its value-for-money proposition (it's free) and the inherent capability web applications have to share and collaboratively edit documents, plus the fact that any capable mobile browsing device (including pda and phone) just got a lot more functional, it's clear we have an Office killer in the making.

If you're queasy about trusting Google with your private documents online, 2007 will lead to improvements in the open-source space. Novell partners with Microsoft and plans to support MS's Office document format in its version of the open-source OpenOffice suite by January-end. By allowing users of OpenOffice to better send and receive files from Microsoft Office users, this move makes open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office more viable for users.

Broadband for Everyone: BSNL upgraded nearly all of its existing broadband users to 2-megabits-per-second connections, that's anywhere between 30-40 times faster than your dial-up connection, with multi-megabyte downloads, like games and complex software, happening in a matter of seconds! With 2007 being the 'Year of Broadband', a lot of what will follow depends heavily on broadband penetration in metros and Tier-II cities. Expect heated competition with service providers dropping rates.

Social, Social, Social! Ask your children what they've been up to online—chances are the answer will have words like "MySpace", "Hi5" or "Orkut". 2007 may well continue the trend of social networking and you'll be measured by how many connections you have on the network you frequent. While I don't see space for any new broad-based social networks to emerge—existing networks are strong and serving users reasonably well—vertical content sites will emerge that cater to the niche, such as ones that are kids-oriented, or others which serve a professional community. You could log onto the community site that best suits your interests; try MingleBox for networking exclusively with Indians, or LinkedIn for purely business interactions. Existing players such as Amazon (online book megastore!), Flickr (online photosharing), eBay will all weigh in to 'incentivise' content generated by users, allowing users to provide feedback and connect with other users onsite.

Lights! Camera! Upload! With broadband usage set to rise, online video will be hot with more people turning amateur directors and posting video content online, and consumers lapping up TV shows and the latest syndicated content worldwide on their PC screens. Getting content online isn't really that difficult anymore; entry-level digital cameras produce decent video, heck even mobile phones manage an infamous MMS now and then. This year will also see better tools that facilitate small and large publishers' abilities to post, edit and aggregate quality video content online. A search engine that can search video will be the Next Big Thing.

Web Storage: If you thought portable thumb drives have gotten cheaper, here's what else nosedived—storage online. With just about every service provider offering multi-gigabyte e-mail accounts, a 64kbps Net connection is enough to move most of your life online. And no worrying about running out of space—store your documents, your images... your world online. The "fill it, shut it, forget it" mechanism is at work here. Sites like Flickr host your photos online for free, limiting only how much you can upload every month (for around Rs 1,000 a year, you can up the upload limit to a few gigabytes, and store original digital photos to download). Heavy users may even look to Amazon's S3 web storage which charges a few cents for storage per month, and you get charged only for as much, or as little, as you use.

Localisation, Indianisation: A slew of start-ups are targeting the local market, rather than catch-all US markets. They serve an established niche, and 2007 will see the likes of Picsquare (delivery of printed photos anywhere in India), HungryBangalore (restaurant booking/delivery across the city), Taazza (local news aggregator) and CarPool.in start making a difference in our lives, and hopefully sustain themselves while they're at it!

Widgets/Personalisation: If you're at your computer all day, there will be sites you check often. With widgets—mini web applications serving specific purposes—you can drag them all onto your desktop or onto a personalised home page, where they are constantly updated. Content providers will start publishing their information feeds mainstream, and all you need to do is to subscribe via embeddable widgets. Try the Personalized Google Home Page, or Yahoo Widgets on for size, and suddenly, information retrieval will be a thing of the past.

The Mobile Web: Allow me one loose prediction. The mobile web, specifically the ability to search and retrieve data on the move, will get closer to you. With an increasing number of gadgets vying for your attention, this is probably going to find its place of pride in your pocket this year. Image editing/display software, music players, instant messaging, blogging, all will happen on your mobile phone. So, get set to be on the move.