I do not know if my idea have already been used somewhere. Anyway I would share the idea here to see if it can inspire anybody.
Nowadays desktop apps and web-based software (or SaaS or anything similar) are emerging. Google works hard to let its docs, reader to work offline. Many innovative web-based apps are coming, like Aviary, the web-based design tools. And there are desktop version of Twitter, eBay, Flickr. Netbooks are targeted to serf the net, which is making use of SaaS to compensate netbooks’ low computing power. And there are already people asking for a web-based OS.
But it is hard to put all the things in the cloud, at least it needs a lot of money to get that storage to store all your music and video… And the private stuff, transferring through the Internet is already taking risk. So how to make them available to you anywhere like SaaS?
The answer is a web interface of a software. It isn’t a new thing since VLC Player, eMule, Winamp(slightly different approach) and possibly more software already have this function. The software itself has a build-in web server, that make you access the service from anywhere by typing the computer’s IP address. And yup, it is like telnet that let you control the computer and the files, but even more like remote desktop that give you a better interface, and with less bandwidth dependency.
My idea is one step forward, not only to provide a web interface but also a web service, like some REST API. This can let developer make their own web interface and host the interface elsewhere, further reduce bandwidth dependency. It can also let developers make some mash up, which is now between the desktop and the Internet but not only the Internet itself.
What we developer should do is to remember to provide such Internet accessible API when developing desktop software. And it is even better to draft a standard for other developers.