Thoughts on desktop interfaces

A while ago I said on FriendFeed that the only "desktop interface" I use for web services is Thunderbird for Gmail and Google Calendar. OK, that wasn't completely accurate because I was also using Thunderbird as an interface for Google Contacts.

Trouble is, that's not true any more. I don't use Thunderbird as a desktop interface for those three services any more, because the actual web interface has again gotten so much better at a rate that no desktop interface can keep up with. Calendar added tasks, which is nice, Gmail always has new exciting things in the Labs feature and the Contacts service just got a bunch of new fields added.

I don't think desktop interfaces can keep up with the original web interface. Thunderbird was good as an interface for stuff for a while, but I want my tasks list and my extra contacts fields now, not when the maintainers of those Thunderbird add-ons manage to update their stuff.