I've seen the most interesting development to occur in web development so far this year and it's from ... gasp! ... Microsoft.
Before you choke on your sushi, check it out: Microsoft "Gadgets" on Start.com lets you slide rectangular containers of text (widgets, I'm told) around the screen, and snap them into new positions.
The site is a portal, a little like Google News or MyYahoo, but with the innovative interface as described -- which does not require Flash or any other plug-in. (It works in Firefox too.)
The technology Microsoft Gadgets employs is similar to AJAX -- the combination of JavaScript and dynamic server calls used by Google in many cool applications of late (Gmail, Google Maps, etc.). Apparently the new Windows will allow you to drag Gadgets from web pages and drop them onto your desktop, unless I've misunderstood the information on the Gadgets weblog.
The downside is that the web pages generated using Gadgets are neither accessible, standards-compliant nor search-engine friendly. But they look cool and the design is clean ... so Gadgets could have potential.
Then again, I thought the same about Flash back in 1998, and that has largely failed to deliver. Hopefully someone will come up with a better use for this drag-and-drop interface than the gimmicky stock-tickers and RSS headline displays.
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