Jim Rapoza writes an interesting article in the latest eWeek about the 5 things that Web 2.0 apps need to recognize to be successful. It’s called IT Planner – 5 Steps to Next Generation Web Apps

• Build Rich web apps. Ok pretty general, but a good start, I suppose
• Remain “Open” minded. Open with your data, open to open-source, etc 
• Keep Data Dynamic. Basically, allow users to play with it locally instead of only processing on the server. Sounds good, if not a bit like the “open minded” idea above. 
• Make it available offline. Sure.
• Be Flexible. Allow your app to be “molded” which ever way a user might like. Interesting idea. Basically, “make it configurable, and easy to import and export data”. Hmm, sounds a lot like the 2’nd item also.

All pretty good ideas for…..wait…..what was that? “Available offline”?

Huh? A web app available for offline use. Why, that’s just scandalous. Not too mention soooo last decade.

So. If I’m to understand this properly, one of the next great things in web applications is…. drum roll…. the traditional fat client desktop app.

And the circle remains unbroken. <Sigh>