The line between applications running on a desktop and in a
web browser just got fuzzier

Or maybe it just got bent a little, like a ray of light.

Mozilla, those nice people who brought you the Firefox
browser, have introduced Prism, a way of refracting web applications onto the
desktop so they look like regular programs.

Facebook or Google Mail can therefore show up in your
Windows Start menu and opening them creates a window devoid of the browser
clutter of forward and back buttons.

Mozilla say that unlike Adobe???s AIR, formerly codenamed
Apollo, or Microsoft???s Silverlight , of which Popfly is a demonstration, Prism
is not an attempt to build a proprietary platform that can replace the web.

???We think the web is a powerful and open platform for this
sort of innovation, so our goal is to identify and facilitate the development
of enhancements that bring the advantages of desktop apps to the web platform,???
they say, in a blog note.

Eventually, Prism could have one-click ???Make this a desktop
app??? functionality in Firefox.

Mozilla is also seeking to match the remaining advantages of
desktop programs, with future Firefox features such as offline storage of data
and giving Web apps access to 3D graphics capabilities.

What this all means for users is a more holistic experience.
In future, we may not think about accessing the internet to perform tasks. It
will just be there, in the background, like the electricity powering our
machines.