So are users really going to end up installing Google Gears, Prism, and BrowserPlus? Destkop/web interaction is definitely useful, but I wonder if it's going to get complicated because of all the different platforms.
I see what Yahoo is trying to do here, but this could've been done by anyone with an activeX or similar plugin for the browser. The reason that this is usually not done is that people do not want to install, or won't install these extra things on their computer.
Surely the Yahoo factor will help it propogate, but I don't really see a point. These features need to become standard and built into the browser, otherwise they'll always be a novelty and definitely not key to the functioning of a core website/web application.