It's hard to find a job today where someone isn't logged on tothe Internet, so it may seem silly to ask this question: Is theWorld Wide Web dead? But that's the question asked in therecent issue of Wired magazine.

Certainly the Internet is not dead--we need a way to connect toeach other--but the Web is a different story thanks to the rise ofapplications that connect us directly to companies without surfingthe Web.

It's interesting that applications for the iPhone, Black Berry,and Android have risen to such prominence in the last year just asthe insurance industry is finally making a dent in the World WideWeb. If there's one catch-phrase for every application in theinsurance field today it's "Web-enabled."

Wired is more out in front of the technology world than theinsurance industry, but pronouncements of the Web's death might bepremature. At least some in the industry are latching on to theapplication environment that might change how we all communicatewith each other.

There's not a week goes by that one insurer or another isn'tannouncing its new app for one of the smart phones or the iPad.After getting burned by a restrained approach to the Internet backin the 1990s, you can't blame carriers--particularly the largeones--for jumping onto something new.

What's fascinating about these apps is it appears we havefinally found the elusive "killer app" that the insurance industryhas been searching for in the mobile arena for years. TechDecisions annually covers mobile technology in the magazine and earlier this decade itwas a running joke over when a killer app finally would appear.

In those days, we all thought it was going to have something todo with laptops and obviously that was wrong. It's the smartphonesthat have carried the day.

During a recent Webinar I hosted for Tech Decisions oncore systems, I asked Karen Pauli, research director of TowerGroup,whether the mobile claims apps that personal lines carriers haveintroduced to their policyholders will eventually improve claimsautomation for commercial lines insurers.

"Mobility is really a clear trend for most carriers," saidPauli. "The service capabilities of personal lines immediatelytransfer to commercial lines. [The apps] have some capabilities forthe claims administration vendors who are proficient in personallines. They can probably--and many have--driven that over to thecommercial lines area. It's quite compatible."

What's your view of the smartphone apps? Is this the killer appfor insurers?