I installed a piece of software recently that sealed my fate in the tongue-wagging war over Web 2.0. This is one of those topics I steer away from. It’s too much like politics. Just as I prefer issues over politics, I prefer solving problems to debating the tools used to solve problems.

One part of the issue stems from the growing number of software startups that are focusing on being Web 2.0-ish and not on solving real problems. The other part stems from the belief in some quarters that the desktop is dead. The latter doesn’t seem realistic, but most of the software startups deemed buzz-worthy these days are Web 2.0 apps.

I’m not a web historian, but from my perspective Tim O’Reilly’s pronouncement about Web 2.0 would have had a long less bang without Google releasing the AJAX-enabled Google Maps. It made a lot of us say “Wow!”.

So what was the app?

The application was the Google AdWords Editor. It has a few warts but compared to the web version, there’s no comparison in user friendliness.

And why did it make me a Web 2.0 cynic?

Google is the embodiment of the New Web Order. I’m not saying the Google = Web 2.0 exclusively, but there is a tight correlation. Google makes its bread and butter off of AdWords. So when Google decides to create a responsive, user-friendly interface to its 2nd most important software (after search itself), they went with a desktop application. Sure it’s written in XUL, but it’s still a desktop application.

So the bottom line is, the Biggest Web Software Company in the World turned to the desktop in order to make the customers who pay the bills happy!