It could be argued that the browser itself is ripe to undergo a rather radical change over the next few years. Google's strategy here is to fatten the browser so that it becomes the Operating System, and then offer web-aware apps through that environment. Another strategy would be to thin the browser down and integrate it more strongly into the OS.
Browsers should be managing this kind of continuous (or as I like to say, persistent) state for us. They should also be capable of a lot of the social interaction some companies have chased after - sharing certain information with friends, syncing things up (simple app idea: sync up youtube across multiple browsers so you can fill your house with music simply by having a net connection), and likely other things as well.
I would suggest that people work toward building these browsers of the future, but such an undertaking would be monumental, and as you noted, Google has a pretty strong lock on this corner of the tech world.
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It could be argued that the browser itself is ripe to undergo a rather radical change over the next few years. Google's strategy here is to fatten the browser so that it becomes the Operating System, and then offer web-aware apps through that environment. Another strategy would be to thin the browser down and integrate it more strongly into the OS.
Browsers should be managing this kind of continuous (or as I like to say, persistent) state for us. They should also be capable of a lot of the social interaction some companies have chased after - sharing certain information with friends, syncing things up (simple app idea: sync up youtube across multiple browsers so you can fill your house with music simply by having a net connection), and likely other things as well.
I would suggest that people work toward building these browsers of the future, but such an undertaking would be monumental, and as you noted, Google has a pretty strong lock on this corner of the tech world.