McAfee Launches SecurityCenter: "In what is becoming an industry standard, McAfee.com is launching a free download to introduce new users to the new strategy before charging for the service: SecurityCenter, a Web-based application that scans and rates a PCs security (on a scale of 1 to 10). [...] Officials would not say when they would start charging for SecurityCenter, though the program will likely be a monthly service charge."

The border between desktop software and web apps is increasingly blurring. From security software vendors such as McAfee and Symantec, to blogging software such as Radio Userland, dedicated clients are able to tap into online data and services. These dual offerings are usually sold on a subscription basis, since the desktop application alone is crippled or useless.

This model is still fledging though, since adoption by larger vendor mainly remains to come. Microsoft for instance has been hinting at software sold and operated as a service for a while now. Microsoft Office does have several server extensions for groupware purposes, but they're LAN based and there's still not much that works on the Internet at large.