The progression of web based applications continue to push the barrier between traditional software applications , those you purchase and install on your computer, and online applications or webware, those you can run from your browser. This progression continues to bring us ever closer to the web OS, allowing to run simple thin client devices with a web browser interface from which we can run all of our traditional software applications.

I have always considered the  Web OS theory to be limited to basic productivity applications,  but once again this is being challenged as we see image and photo editing web apps now becoming available with very sophisticated tools. Here are a couple web applications that I recently came across for this purpose:

• Aviary – Suite of tools including image editing and vector editing. From their website:

Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your web browser. We’re on a mission to make creation accessible to artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing. Use your account to create, share, and collaborate with our community of artists.

• Picnik – Simple and easy image editing tool. From their website:

Picnik is photo editing awesomeness, online, in your browser. It’s the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, or apply effects to your photos. 

I still have yet to use either solution, but its exciting to see the creation of web based image editing applications. Please let me know if you have used these or other web based image editing apps and what you think of them.

• Expression Web – Design tool to create modern, standards-based sites
• Expression Blend – Design tool to create engaging web-connected experiences for Windows
• Expression Design – Illustration and graphic design tool
• Expression Media – Asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets

These products, plus a new site about design at Microsoft make it clear that Microsoft is trying to get serious about design. Clearly none of these applications are revolutionary, making it difficult for them to compete against industry favorites such as Adobe, but it will be interesting to see how much of the market they can win over. Without releasing a Mac compatible version I don’t see them going behond standard home users.

In response to this post I made the following comment: “PowerPoint can be used as a great tool for wireframing, but I am surprised if there isn’t a tool to do it quicker and easier. I have envisioned an application like Visio where you can drag graphical components common to web pages and forms (buttons, combo boxes, lists, etc.) and add basic clickable navigation. So far I haven’t come across what I am looking for.”

Doing some addition investigation to the topic I found another similar blog post by eMomentum that discusses how they use FrontPage. After some consideration using a WYSIWYG editor may be more of what I am looking for. It gives you a graphical interface where you can drag common components, easily add clickable navigation, plus gives you a step ahead on the HTML coding with the option of posting the wireframe to the web for easy sharing and collaboration. Another option that I thought about is Flash which also has a similar easy to use interface to create the mock-ups.

What wireframing tools do you use that you would recommend?

Another useful resource that I came across for tips and insider views from Google on search engine optimization are the video posts by Matt Cutts. Check them out at Google Video.