If for a moment you doubted of the capabilities of Adobe AIR, or the myriad of Microsoft Office-like web applications that rely on a browser to fully function, think again.

One of the true heavyweights in the world of desktop applications has made it to the web, albeit in a much reduced form, Adobe Photoshop Express beta opened doors today. The free web application offers up to 2GB of storage per account, and relies on Flash to provide many of the basic functions available on its popular Photoshop photo editing software. Adobe has also added social networking tools, which will let it compete hand in hand with other more established web photo services.

This is a big bet for Adobe who eventually plans to profit from the service offering printing and other advanced features and capabilities for a fee.