Online Software

After reading an article this week I thought I'd write a post on Adobes plans for an online future. Following in the footsteps of Google - or realizing that Google may well take over the world if someone doesn't stop them - Adobe recently announced it is planning on making an online version of Photoshop. The plan is to create a hosted version of Photoshop that would be free to use. At first I couldn't imagine the stress I would cause with the memory intensive tasks I so regularly put Photoshop - and my machine - through working well online but the plan is to create a stripped down version.

With CS3 available now with it's fancy new features it will be interesting to see just what tools Adobe can offer for free online and how their products might stack up against Googles ventures into this area with Picasa. Bruce Chizen (Adobe CEO)recently stated:

"If we offered a host-based version of Photoshop that's Photoshop branded and potentially better than Google's Picasa, you'd probably go down the Photoshop route because of your belief in the brand and the quality associated with it"

While this may be true of designers and developers I think Joe public might be more familiar and at home with Google. However, Adobe have a great track record for creating quality products and, with Flex looking very interesting now, I don't doubt they'll create a great product that will have many of the existing photo-editing startups losing sleep.

A few existing services in this area:
Picasa, Pixenate, Fauxto, Preloadr

Adobe links and articles:
Adobe

PDF about Remix - Adobe's online video editing service

Anyone know any more info on this - or if there's any screenshots of what it might look like feel free to add some comments with links.