No, it’s not some sort of new Massively Multiplayer Online game—though that would be awesome (I hit you with a Level 3 Gaussian Blur! Massive criticals!). Rather, Adobe plans on releasing a web-based version of Photoshop. The target demographic for the hosted version would supposedly be even more basic than Photoshop Elements, and would draw revenue from ads. This is not Adobe’s first foray into web-based services: they’ve developed an online version of Premiere called Remix that’s available at PhotoBucket.
Two questions strike me here. The first is whether a web-based version of Photoshop, even a basic one, is a good idea. Unlike Google’s online apps for word processing and spreadsheets, photo editing is pretty intensive and network latency could present a problem, especially if you’re trying to work with large files. That said, I doubt anyone is considering getting rid of their existing version of Photoshop in favor of a web-based version, but this feeds into my second point.
Assuming that they do actually call this web-based software as “Photoshop,” could poor performance potentially backfire on Adobe’s existing products? Photoshop is on par with Google when it comes to brand recognition, but by divvying up the product into three separate lines (online, elements, and standard), would it increase the product’s reach or just confuse users?
Crap. Now I’m really jonesing for a Photoshop online RPG. Imagine the havoc the smudge tool could wreak. Or blinding your enemies with lens flares. One thing’s for sure: it brings a whole new meaning to the magic wand.
[via Slashdot]
If it's of help, then Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Album have been around since before Macromedia joined Adobe... Photoshop Lightroom was recently added for pro photographers' needs. The franchise is already a wide one.
There's a lot of imaging technology under development at Adobe, and a lot of Adobe-based workflows in the world today... one of the goals I see is to match available technologies to different types of audience needs, to create "a Photoshop for you" regardless of your particular situation and goals.
(I agree with you on the need to design around latency and other net-specific traits.)
jd/adobe