It’s been a long time since we first heard Adobe would release an online version of Photoshop. It launched word processor acquisition Buzzword first, but hasn’t been as buzzworthy (pun intended) as major the players, Zoho Writer and Google Docs. How does Photoshop Express fare?
Photoshop Express is more of a photo-sharing site with several image editing features than it is an online port of the image editing heavyweight. It’s a far cry from Splashup (which I drooled over when it was still named Fauxto) and the extensive design suite that is Aviary. Many consider this a disappointment, because why would Adobe let itself get beaten at its own game?
Why release Photoshop Express like this? Maybe Adobe’s not looking to web-ify as many Photoshop features as possible, but instead hook the average user with the retouching tools and of course the social sharing angle, just like Picnik. But could Photoshop Express become both feature-packed and social in the future? Why not?
Photoshop Express, Splashup, Aviary, Picnik, and Buzzword all use Flash. It’s amazing to see how far Macromedia’s former star player has come—from creating the new standard in online video to possibly rendering PDF documents obsolete. If Google Docs or Zoho Writer ran on Flash, would they be as popular? Could the Web have embraced rich internet applications as easily if we depended on Sun (Java) or Microsoft (Silverlight) to deliver the job?