Offline Web Applications and specifically AIR have been added to the Top 10 Technologies by MIT's Technology Review of 2008.

Web-based computer programs, unlike their desktop counterparts, are always up to date and are instantly available, no matter where the user is or what operating system she's running. That's why cloud computing--so called because it involves software that resides in the "clouds" of the Internet--has caused a "tidal shift in how people are actually creating software," says Kevin Lynch, chief software architect at Adobe Systems. (For a review of ­Nicholas Carr's new book on cloud computing, see "The Digital Utility," p. 92.) But cloud computing has drawbacks: users give up the ability to save data to their own hard drives, to drag and drop items between applications, and to receive notifications, such as appointment reminders, when the browser window is closed.

The article interviews Kevin Lynch about AIR. Of course there are other solutions for offline web apps like Google Gears and Prism. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I would expect much like with other technology wars more conservative development shops are going to wait a bit and see how it plays out.

Specific technology aside, it's pretty cool to see web apps and offline web app viewed as being this important outside of the web community. I've seen some other posts recently that down play the significance of offline web apps and these hybrid platforms, and I think many of them are missing the point. The biggest oversight is that these are just as much platforms for really-cross-os-desktop development as offfline web apps. Which means the number of developers who can deploy to the desktop just got a lot bigger and is going to grow really fast, which means we're just at the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot of cool innovation and ideas we haven't seen or thought of yet.

Read more from Andre Charland.