Working online is about to get a lot more satisfying. Thanks to a new wave of internet-based technology, using online applications such as word processors or more complex tools will no longer be a slow and off-putting experience.

That, at least, is the view of Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, who last month predicted a coming boom in online applications. From one perspective, his enthusiasm is hardly surprising: he has pinpointed this area as Google's next big market and has plenty of reason to talk up the prospects.

Yet his comments also highlight advances that are bringing rapid changes to many online experiences - even though some internet developers warn that not all the results will be welcomed by workers.

One of these developments is the evolution of the internet browsers themselves. Though their look has changed little, the technical guts of browsers have turned them into more robust platforms capable of supporting better experiences. Mr Schmidt attributes this to the arrival of greater competition for Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the shape of the Firefox and Safari browsers.

Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, maker of a popular online application called Basecamp, says that as a result, technologies have become "a lot more standardised" among browsers, making it easier to create applications that run on all of them.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, disputes that point. The basic technology standards that govern today's browsers were set a decade ago, he says: if better applications are being built inside browsers, it is simply because developers have had more time to work out how to exploit the technology better.

He adds that "Ajax", the package of technologies used to add elements to a Web page without having to reload the whole page, has been in browsers for years. Ajax is the source of some of the biggest recent advances in browser-based applications.

A second force behind change has been the rapid development of "plug-ins" to extend the capabilities of browsers, particularly when it comes to so-called "rich media" applications that use video. Like Adobe's Flash player, which was first used to render text and graphics but has since become a common tool for viewing video over the Web, these pieces of software are advancing far faster than browsers themselves, which are held back by a need to work with all websites.

Microsoft recently jumped into this game with Silverlight, its new presentation technology that runs in any browser - a break from Microsoft tradition.

The plug-ins are set to become the vehicles for many other new capabilities to be added to Web-based applications. Adobe, for instance, is using the Flash player to distribute its new Air software, which makes it possible to view some parts of applications while not connected to the internet. According to David Wadhwani, an engineer at Adobe, future additions will include a voice-over-internet service component, making it possible to add voice calling to applications.

This race to create new Web-based experiences through plug-ins is not universally welcomed among developers. The software tools that developers use to build these experiences are still relatively new, says Mr Fried. That leads to applications that launch slowly and are of variable quality, he claims.

The third element driving the evolution of online applications is a blurring of the differences between online and offline experiences. This is partly prompted by an attempt to let people use elements of their internet-based applications when not connected to the internet. Google, for instance, is testing a browser extension called Gears that adds this capability.

Over the next year, browsers themselves will come with support for Web-based applications when offline, says Brendan Eich of Mozilla, the open-source organisation that created Firefox.

A parallel effort is under way to create desktop applications that can be fed by real-time data from the internet. An Ebay application, for instance, lets frequent sellers organise their inventory when offline, then uploads the information and feeds in the latest auction results when connected to the internet.

Some argue these developments are moving faster than users really want. Mr Fried at 37signals says they are a product of the competitive race among technology companies, not a response to customers' needs. "I think that to say you should work everywhere is a sad notion," he says. "You should work at the office, or at home."

Eventually, internet access will extend everywhere, turning all applications into "live" services - but for now, he says, enjoy the freedom while you still can.

在线办公将变得更加令人愉悦。由于新一轮互联网技术浪潮，使用在线应用程序（如文字处理程序或更复杂的工具）将不再是一种速度缓慢、令人恼火的体验。

至少，这是谷歌(Google)首席执行官埃里克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)的观点。他在上个月预计，在线应用程序将迎来一个繁荣期。从某种角度而言，他的这种热情没什么值得惊讶的：他已瞄准这个领域，将其作为谷歌的下一个大市场，而且有很多理由畅谈未来的前景。

然而，他的话也突显了为在线体验带来迅速变革的技术进步——尽管一些互联网开发商警告称，并非所有结果都会受到人们的欢迎。

在这些发展中，其中一个便是互联网浏览器自身的演变。尽管它们的面貌变化很小，但浏览器的技术内涵已将其转变为更为强劲的平台，能够支持更好的网络体验。施密特将这归因于Firefox和Safari浏览器给微软(Microsoft)网络浏览器带来的更大竞争。

37signals公司创始人詹森•弗里德(Jason Fried)表示，竞争的结果是，在各种浏览器中，技术变得“更为标准化”，使得人们更加容易编制能在所有浏览器上运行的应用程序。37signals公司是流行在线应用软件Basecamp的制造商。

微软互联网浏览器部门总经理迪安•哈查莫维奇(Dean Hachamovitch)对这种观点表示怀疑。他表示，支配当今浏览器的基本技术标准是在10年前设立的：如果浏览器内部配备了更好的应用程序，那只是因为开发人员花了更多时间去寻找能够更好开发这项技术的方法。

他补充称，“阿贾克斯”(Ajax)已被嵌入浏览器许多年了。阿贾克斯是一个技术包，用于向网页上添加内容，而无需重新加载整个网页。浏览器应用技术最近取得的一些重大进步，都是以阿贾克斯为源头的。

变革背后的第二种力量，是“插件”的迅速发展，这扩大了浏览器的功能，特别是使用视频的所谓“富媒体”(rich media)应用程序。像Adobe的Flash播放器（最初用于展示文本和图表，但此后已成为在网上观赏视频的普遍工具）一样，这些软件比浏览器本身的发展速度快得多。浏览器需要与所有网站兼容，因此，其发展速度受到了影响。

微软最近也借助Silverlight，加入了这场竞赛。这种新型展示技术可以在任何浏览器上运行，堪称对微软传统的一次突破。

插件程序将成为一种媒介，充当其它许多新功能添加到互联网应用程序的载体。例如，Adobe正利用Flash播放器传播其新的Air软件，这种软件使得人们可以在不联网的情况下浏览应用程序的某些部分。Adobe工程师大卫•瓦迪瓦尼(David Wadhwani)称，未来的附加程序将包括一个互联网语音服务组件，使得人们可以将语音通话添加到应用程序上。

这种通过插件创建新式网络体验的竞赛，在开发人员中并未受到普遍欢迎。弗里德表示，开发人员用来构建这些体验的软件工具仍相对较新。他声称，这会导致应用程序启动缓慢，而且质量参差不齐。

推动在线应用程序发展变革的第三个因素是，在线与离线体验之间的区别日益模糊。一定程度上，这是因为人们正在进行一些尝试，试图在不联网时使用互联网应用程序的组件。例如，谷歌正在测试一种名为Gears的扩展浏览器，其中就添加了这一功能。

开放源代码组织、Firefox浏览器开发商Mozilla的布兰登•艾奇(Brendan Eich) 表示，到了明年，浏览器本身就能在离线状态下支持网络应用程序。

正在进行的另外一项工作是，研发能从网络上实时下载数据的桌面应用程序。例如，Ebay的一项应用程序可以让经常在这里卖东西的商家离线整理它们的库存，然后再在联网时上传信息并了解最新的拍卖结果。

一些人辩称，这些发展比用户实际希望的要快。37signals的弗里德表示，它们是科技公司彼此竞争的产物，而不是对用户需求的回应。“我认为，说你应该在任何地方工作，这是个可悲的想法，”他表示。“你应该在办公室工作，或者在家工作。”

他表示，最终，互联网接口将扩展到任何地方，将所有应用程序转变成“直播”服务——但目前而言，在你还能享受自由的时候，尽情享受自由吧。

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