More proof that Internet-based applications are finally arriving: Adobe jumps in with a scaled down version of Photoshop. (Read the announcement at Information Week.)

This follows on the heals of Intuit’s release of Quicken Online in early March. I talked about this trend in December, 2007 (read the article). It is a very important trend. As I said then and will repeat now, as big companies move online, suddenly the entire web-world has an air of legitimacy.

I started writing software for Palm handhelds in 1997 and, as they reached what I thought was critical mass in 2000, I kept waiting for the big boys to come on board and write applications. Intuit never did — they outsourced. Microsoft did with Office products but only because of the OS play. I expected to see name-brand companies, both aimed at business and gaming, writing portable versions of their software. It never happened.

So when I start seeing Adobe and Intuit, two of the biggest names in the desktop world writing web applications, I know we are not too far from main-stream web-based applications. It gives credibility to all of us looking in that direction. And it shows that the web can be used for more than looking things up and social networking.