Every year I take notice of what we have available now compared to the previous year to see if the somewhat-aged question of "Can you live a digital life with the browser being your only program?" be answered with a definitive yes.

At present, that answer is still a big fat no.

Before I get into why that is, the dream of "living in the browser" is one that wasn’t a realistic idea only up until close to three years ago. Why? Because it was only at that point there were web apps that were actually good and usable.

As to the question of what a web-app actually is, an example of one that everybody uses is web-based email. When you use webmail, it is designed to emulate most of what a real email client would do. It sends mail, receives mail and does other mail client-specific functions like contact lists and so on. That is a web-app. It is different from what’s traditionally known as a web site because it’s a program that actually does something and has a specific function rather than be solely a document.

What do we have now that we didn’t in 2009?

Web-based video editing

Google introduced the YouTube Video Editor back in June ’10.

Full reliable availability of cloud storage with some big-storage options

Windows Live SkyDrive goes big with 25GB available in "Wave 4" of SkyDrive (June ’10) and Dropbox goes to stable release (Feb. ’10).

Social network integration

Many platforms in 2010 offered new Twitter and Facebook social integration that otherwise didn’t have it before. Included in this fray are webmail and instant messengers.

Better browsers

Google Chrome releases v5 (yes I know v4 was in early-early 2010 but it sucked,) Mozilla Firefox releases v3.6 (Jan. 2010.)

Better mobile options

Much of what we use on the web with a desktop PC usually has a mobile version that offers roughly the same functionality. Much of what’s available now simply didn’t exist in ’09 but does in ’10.

Does what we have now allow us to completely live in the browser?

No, it doesn’t.

Using the above mentioned newer stuff we have, here’s how that breaks down:

Video editing in a web browser elicits a "Oh, ha ha, that’s so cute it can do that!" type of response, meaning it’s a novelty at best. You’re better off using the ancient Windows Movie Maker from XP because at least it can do just about everything you want it to – for free.

Cloud-based storage is nice but untrusted by many. For example, drop.io is officially bye-bye. Whenever this happens, it makes people think twice about actually using internet means of storing files. Tenure and longevity count big time, and if cloud-based storage providers prove to operate on a here today/gone tomorrow method of operation, nobody will trust it enough to use it seriously.

Social integration is something most people tolerate more than require. Being it started on the web and lives there, the integration of it into the other stuff we use isn’t any huge improvement. More like a weak add-on at best.

We have better browsers but at the same time they’re still terrible. Firefox munches up memory like it’s going out of style and Chrome, while great, still lacks in features other browsers have had for years (like an RSS reader.) All browser-makers still have a way to go at this point.

We also have better mobile options, but browsing on a smartphone is like a 1999 experience using Windows 98. On a smartphone it’s Web 1.0 all over again. The reason? Low-powered computer hardware for the most part – and it has to be that way currently to achieve maximum battery life. In addition, smartphones tend to lean heavily towards locally-installed apps because they run better and require less power (meaning better battery life) to actually do what’s they’re supposed to.

Other things that prevent us from using a computer in web-only fashion

Drive space – or lack thereof

A 500GB hard drive is under 50 bucks – and you can really stretch that space to last a good long time. 1TB and 2TB drives are also quite affordable. Any hard drive you buy is a one-time cost and will usually last for at least 5 years. If you spent $100 on a big hard drive and it holds out for 5 years, that drive cost you $20 a year.

Storing things online costs a ridiculous amount of money compared to actually having the hardware, and the free options simply aren’t big enough.

On top of that, have you ever noticed how difficult it is to do normal file and folder browsing using a browser compared to using the OS itself, no matter which OS you use?

Wait times

When in the browser you do a lot of waiting. Uploading, downloading, synchronizing and so on. On the surface it doesn’t appear like this takes a lot of time, but when you add it all together it really does. When local, the only time you wait is from the limitations of your own hardware.

Proprietary nonsense

Certain apps/programs running on certain OSes get things done better by design. Whether it’s Windows and IE or OS X and iTunes, it’s this type of proprietary crapola that forces us into using a specific OS and specific programs for specific tasks. When that happens, the browser-only way of doing it is completely shot down and will most likely never see the light of day.

What’s the ultimate goal?

This is very simple to explain:

The ultimate goal is for you to be able to go to any computer – desktop or mobile – running any OS using any browser and be able to do everything you want.

At present this is simply not possible. For each specific OS and platform there will be stuff you can do on one but cannot on the other, therefore the goal of web-only-everything cannot be achieved.

When will the ultimate goal be achieved?

Well, you could do it right now if you made a conscious decision to simplify your digital lifestyle – but you’d have to really, really water down what you do with computers to be able to live in a browser that’s 100% compatible everywhere.

The point is however that you should not have to do that. If you want to live in the browser, you should not have to make any major compromises to do so.

Maybe someday we’ll get there, but not now.

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