Regarding your idea of data being uploaded instantly, or nearly instantly, at generation: I think this is spot on, but I don't think (and I surely hope not) tha

Regarding your idea of data being uploaded instantly, or nearly instantly, at generation: I think this is spot on, but I don't think (and I surely hope not) that the data will be uploaded to Google's (or anybody elses, in particular) servers. Instead, I think (and hope) that the data will be seeded in a manner similar to Bittorrent, and stored in a distributed way. The big reason I think Web apps will succeed, though, is that it's a common API. HTTP might not be the best protocol for everything, ever, but it's a pretty good protocol. JavaScript might not be the best language for everything, ever, but it's a pretty good language. The things that our OS:es do for us today, they can keep on doing, and that can be written in C or Java or assembler, but they will eventually have to expose that functionality to the Web platform, if anybody is going to use it.