Have a couple of web-based applications that you need quick and easy access to on a regular basis? You could set your browser homepage to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, or Zoho Writer. Or you could use Bubbles to create a desktop shortcut that will open your web page almost instantly in a site-specific web browser. We first looked at Bubbles a few months ago, but this week the developers released a brand new beta version which is faster, and which adds support for extensions.

These extensions are scripts that let you change the way you interact with certain web content. You can find extensions at the Bubbles repository. When you click on an extension to run or install it, the extension will be added to your Bubbles menu. This provides a quick and easy way to create shortcuts to frequently used web applications like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Facebook. One user-generated script provides you with a window that keeps the Facebook Chat interface open even when you're not viewing the whole Facebook web site. Other extensions provide system tray notifications of social networking or email updates.

The beta is relatively new, and there aren't a ton of extensions to choose from. But Bubbles handles most web sites that you can access in Firefox or Internet Explorer fairly well. And while Bubbles will eat up a ton of RAM if you open 5 or 10 windows, it appears to use less RAM than Firefox when you're just visiting a single page.

Adobe has taken the wraps off of the final version of its Adobe AIR platform, which has been in beta for some time now. Adobe AIR is a platform that allows developers to create applications that access web services without the need for a web browser. For example, there's an Adobe AIR application that lets you manipulate Google Analytics data, another that lets you upload and organize files stored on AOL's Xdrive storage service, and a bunch of AIR clients for Twitter.

During the beta period, we've been pretty impressed with the look and feel of AIR applications that we've tried out. Now that there's a new release of AIR, users may be prompted to download the update in order to install newer applications, while some applications you've previously installed may be bound to older versions of AIR. Fortunately you can have multiple versions of AIR installed on your computer simultaneously.

AIR is available for Mac and Windows computers. You can find an incomplete list of applications built on Adobe AIR at Adobe's web site

Like having Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr, and other web services at your fingertips, but don't feel like keeping RAM-hungry Firefox open all day? Bubbles is a Windows application lets you run web services in their own individual windows, no Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer required.

When you first run Bubbles, you'll see a list of web sites which you can open with the application. You can also add any page you want just by entering the URL. You can start a web app by clicking the "Go" button and you should see icons for each application pop up in your Windows system tray. Click on one to bring up the web app of your choice. Clicking the X bar doesn't close the window, but minimizes it to the system tray. In order to really close a window you'll need to right-click on its icon and select close.

Bubbles appears to use less memory than Firefox when accessing some web pages like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. But we noticed a window running Google Reader quickly grew to use 50MB. Overall Bubbles seems like a slick and easy to use alternative to Mozilla Prism. But there is room for improvement. For example, when you click on a link in a Bubble window, instead of opening a new Bubble, the program opens your default web browser, which sort of defeats the purpose if you want to do anything besides read web pages.

Bubbles has actually been around a lot longer than Prism, but it works pretty well with modern web applications and supports Greasemonkey. There's even a Gmail notifier that works even with the newer version of Gmail.

[Thanks Jim Mauro!]

Oh experimental applications, they grow up so quickly. It seems like just last week we were telling you about Mozilla WebRunner, a stripped down version of Firefox with no tabs or URL bar. And now WebRunner's all grown up and has a new name: Prism.

OK, all grown up might be an overstatement. But Mozilla has outlined their goals for the simple web browser: to let you access web applications without firing up Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or whatever it is you're using to read this site.

Here's how it works. You download and install Prism. The first time you run it, a window will pop up asking you for a URL, name, and where you'd like to "install" the application. Installation basically means creating a shortcut on your desktop, Start Menu, or Quick Launch Bar. To "uninstall" a web app, just delete the shortcut.

While you could argue Prism is just a glorified way of making desktop shortcuts to web pages, something we've been able to do for years, it's a bit more than that. Because Prism doesn't feature all the bells, whistles, toolbars, and add-ons of Firefox, it's a very light weight browser. And if you just want to access Google Reader, Gmail, or Zoho, that might be enough.

Eventually, Mozilla may integrate Prism with Firefox. In other words, there would be a toolbar menu that says "make this a desktop app." Any time you visit a website that you want to open with Prism in the future, you could click a button to activate the Prism settings menu.

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen says within 10 years, the company will be offering all of its applications online. His remarks come at a time when we see more and more companies offering online applications as an alternative to desktop products.

Google Docs, Zoho, Picnik, SnapLayout, Zude, just a few of the many successful online applications that can be accessed anywhere without the large cost of boxed versions. There might be some features missing, but this new breed of application has much to offer the user with free, portable, cross platform, accessible with no upgrades needed as a few of the benefits.

Major software development companies like Adobe are starting to take note and recognize their shrinking market share. The likes of Picnik and PikiFX are emerging and growing the free online image editing space and have forced Adobe to quickly rethink their software strategy pushing them to develop a version of their popular Photoshop for online usage. Adobe still has no release date for Photoshop Express but realizes that the future of software lies with online versions and is working to deliver all of their applications via the web.

Chizen says he believes that these new online applications will only appeal to a younger generation of users that would never think of paying $400 for a packaged software product. Dear Adobe, we think this will appeal to all users, young or old, just as long as they, along with the rest of the world will have access to broadband in 10 years. After all, what good is an online application if it can't be accessed properly?