Solo Technology

One of the more interesting (to me) Zoho announcements I mentioned yesterday was this “desktopize” application. This is done with the folks at Desktopize and, essentially, gives you a web-app-in-a-browser.

Now, when I first saw it I wasn’t all that impressed. I mean come on, we’ve had tabbed browsers for quite some time now… why do I need web stuff in a separate window. Welcome to the 90s! However, the idea quickly grew. Some of the ponderables I’ve been pondering:

• I frequently restart my browsers to reclaim memory. (frequently being once or twice a day)
• This is a bummer with the apps that I have to log into.
• Meebo being a good example. Tracks is another.
• The Zoho stuff as well, but Desktopize solved that for some of theirs (*cough* Planner *cough*)
• I have unique browser crashing/killing skills as a web application developer (see bullet 1)
• At first glance, and I’m sure I’ve over-simplified drastically, desktopizing a web application doesn’t seem all that complicated.

Tonight, as a proof of concept, I built a little VB.NET application. A very simple application. It has a form and a WebBrowser component on it. The properties of that latter component has URL set to http://www.meebo.com/. Now when I run my app I have meebo “desktopized”! Resizable window — and heck, the pop-outs work too.

Minimizing it to the tray would be the next logical step, followed by adding a tray menu to easily log in/out of accounts. Maybe even set statuses (and I’m just spit-balling here, I don’t think meebo actually has an API for stuff like this yet, do they?)

My proof of concept works wonderfully. By doing this I can have meebo up all day in a reasonably light-weight window and open and close other browser windows to my heart’s content.

If a simple fella like me can do this, imagine if the meebo folks did it, but did it up right? Interesting notion, yes? Or am I all wet?

To me this is one of those things that is so obvious in retrospect: All the power and flexibility of a web-based application, with all the convenience of a desktop app. Think these folks at Desktopize have a clever thing going here? I sure do.

9 Responses to “Meebo and Desktopize”

1. Rich G. on December 4th, 2006 8:46 am
   

   Have you left it on yet for long periods to see if it eats memory over time like firefox may if not using your reclaim memory trick.

2. Rich G. on December 4th, 2006 8:56 am
   

   I love the sig file you’ve given me!

3. Rich G. on December 4th, 2006 8:58 am
   

   OK, last one… I dunno which plug-in that is, but I’m SO stealing it!!!

4. Chris on December 4th, 2006 9:00 am
   

   Nice browser shuffle there, Rich!

   The plugin: http://priyadi.net/archives/2005/03/29/wordpress-browser-detection-plugin/

5. Ohad on December 4th, 2006 12:35 pm
   

   Howdy,

   I’m Ohad, one of the fellas behind Desktopize.
   We’re not offended by the over-simplification of Desktopize, actually we’re happy that’s how people perceive it because it means what we’re doing is seamless and intuitive.

   We’ve put a lot of work into our API which allows web-applications to control their tray-presence. This includes tray-icon, menu items, stylized notifications from the tray and more.

   We’re actually tried to talk to the Meebo guys about doing a partnership, because like you said, a Desktopized Meebo would be super cool. Imagine right-clicking the tray-icon and seeing all your contacts with their statuses, imagine notifications of messages coming up unobtrusively…

   Let’s hope they pick this up a warm signal, or maybe I should try pinging them again after all.

   cheers,
   Ohad Eder-Pressman
   3D3R Software-Studios

6. Chris on December 4th, 2006 12:48 pm
   

   Hi Ohad - glad I didn’t offend!

   I vote that you ping the meebo folks again. Maybe even point ‘em to some other apps you’ve desktopized? Meebo is an awesome candidate for something like this.

7. » pingback » First Release: Meebo Desktop » Solo Technology on December 25th, 2006 4:15 pm
   
   
8. Brett Y. on January 27th, 2008 6:41 pm
   

   Hey, you know, this is very interesting to see that somebody besides myself had this idea. You beat me too it, of course, but Hey, at least it means that there are other like-minded folks out there who are thinking Meebo could use somekind of downloadable application.

   I have only been messin’ around with VB for two or three weeks now, and I actually made a program just exactly like yours. Very simplistic, albeit. Keep up the good work, and HOPEFULLY somebody from the Meebo department will wing you in, or pair up with you, or build upon your idea.

9. Chris Kasten on January 27th, 2008 7:21 pm
   

   Hi Brett,
   Nope, you’re definitely not on your own. I even released a Meebo Desktop client a few weeks after I wrote this.

   The advent of Prism, however, has me just using that instead.

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