Emerging Technologies: New Developments in Web Browsing and Authoring (Report‪)‬

In this new decade of the 21st century, the Web is undergoing a significant transformation. Supplementing its traditional role of retrieving and displaying data, it is now becoming a vehicle for delivering Web-based applications, server-stored programs that feature sophisticated user interfaces and a full range of interactivity. Of course, it has long been possible to create interactive Web pages, but the interactivity has been more limited in scope and slower in execution than what is possible with locallyinstalled programs. The limitations in terms of page layout, interactive capabilities (like drag and drop), animations, media integration, and local data storage, may have had developers of Web-based language learning courseware yearning for the days of HyperCard and Toolbook. But now, with major new functionality being added to Web browsers, these limitations are, one by one, going away. Desktop applications are increasingly being made available in Web versions, even such substantial programs as Adobe PhotoShop and Microsoft Office. Included in this development are also commercial language learning applications, like Tell me More and Rosetta Stone. This movement has been accelerated by the growing popularity of smart phones, which feature full functionality Web browsers, able in many cases to run the same rich internet applications (RIA) as desktop Web browsers. A new Web-based operating system (OS) is even emerging, created by Google specifically to run Web applications. In this column we will discuss recent developments in Web browsing and authoring and what the implications may be for language learning. We will touch on what has changed since LLT columns surveying the state of the Web five years ago, "Ajax and Firefox: New Web Applications and Browsers" (2005), and ten years ago, "Web Browser Trends and Technologies" (2000). WEB BROWSERS AS OPERATING SYSTEMS?