Tuesday, Jun 3, 2008    Text size: 

Online guru Brandon Shalton told XBIZ that Adobe's efforts to expand into the world of online applications point toward an alternative to traditional computing, with applications and information being stored online instead of locally.

"It's interesting — [Adobe] is doing what Java was supposed to have done," Shalton said, referring to the flagship programming language of software giant Sun Microsystems. Shalton, who runs the traffic analysis service T3Report.com, added that although he isn't sure if online applications will catch on in the adult industry, it may mark a new way to think about doing business.

Adobe's new website combines the functionality of three of Adobe's most recently launched online applications: Brio, for online meetings; Buzzword, an online word processor; and Share, an online file-sharer.

Adobe's online meeting engine, Brio, has been ported to Acrobat.com in a less powerful format that still includes support for up to three people to have free online meetings, including screen sharing, desktop video, voice conferencing, instant-messaging and a chalkboard function.

The file-sharing technology, Share, gives users five gigabytes of free storage and provides a widget that can embed documents on other websites. Competing websites include Scribd.com and DocStoc.com.

Adobe's Buzzword joins the online writing-and-editing marketplace alongside a similar website, ScribbleLive.com. Both technologies allow writers to collaborate on a single document or blog entry at the same time. Adobe's Buzzword lets users leave comments on a document and organizes multiple editors' contributions into tabs.

In addition to the launch of Acrobat.com, Adobe released the ninth version of its PDF builder, Acrobat. Its most important new feature is compatibility with Flash, which means that users can now add animated, interactive content to their PDFs.