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I’m sure that many of you internet dwellers have run into the so-called web applications. These web applications are basically scripts running through a web server and are meant to replicate and extend the features of various desktop (offline) software.

The WebApps have appeared under the continuous expansion of Internet services that have resulted into the fact that about any place in the civilized modern world (yeah, I’ll take any puns on this) is or can be connected to the Internet. They do not depend on your hardware, the only software requirement is a web browser and the speed cap is given by your internet connection.

From the plethora of web applications available, the most popular are the file converters and the office applications. The file converters bear a wide range of advantages: you pick a file, upload it on a server and in a moment you’re given the link to pick up your converted version. Basically the only wait-time is for the file to upload/download since the server’s huge computing power takes faster care of the conversion that your PC could. This simple process of drop/pick-up doesn’t pose too much issues, but how about those Office-type applications?

Well, providers such as Zoho or Google offer (free for personal use and for a fee to businesses) access to document processor, spreadsheet processors and others.

The advantages are pretty obvious: you can access your documents any time, any where, using anything: from your PC, laptop to your mobile phone or PDA, even Playstation if you have it enabled for internet access. Your documents are safe, nearly perfectly safe since hosting services have backups over backups, great antivirus protection (whereas copies on your computer are much more likely to suffer if your only drive breaks down or backup DVDs get scratched by the cat) . The space offered is quite vast (up to 20Gb for business use, don’t know of companies to hold that much space of pure documents) and the security of the Google servers is definitely better than that of your windows firewall.

While security itself is not an issue, how about privacy? On your computer, you can pretty much control who sees your documents. But on the Google servers, Google and its staff can have hard-access anytime to your documents. Although Google as a corporation may have little interest in your docs, there’s no telling when a discontent sysadmin would choose to peek at your company’s financial data or blackmail you with your correspondence.

Of course, the entire concept of WebApps is limited by internet connectivity but I chose to disregard this since if you have a computer or electronic device, you need electrical power. If you have electrical power, you can have internet service and today the quality of internet services goes up as the prices go down (not to mention the overall cost works in favor of WebApps, since they’re free or inexpensive compared to the Office suite, save for OpenOffice but even among power-users 3/4 of the user mass doesn’t employ features not present in the WebApps).

Personally I’m slowly leaning towards Google Docs, since documents are easy to store, easy to edit, shareable on a click and visibility customizable. For personal use, it’s advantage all the way. For business however, there are clearly issues and I don’t see the likes of Intel of Governments leaving MS Office/Open Office for Google Docs.

But things are moving slowly to the user’s advantage at least when considering that Microsoft is pondering over great price cuts for its Office suite.