Integrated quantum photonics
As the field has progressed new quantum algorithms have been developed which provide short and long term routes towards the demonstration of the superiority of quantum computers over their classical counterparts. Cluster state computation is now generally accepted as the approach that will be used to develop a fully fledged quantum computer. Whilst development of quantum computer will require the synthesis of many different aspects of integrated optics, boson sampling seeks to demonstrate the power of quantum computation via technologies readily available and is therefore a very promising near term algorithm to doing so. In fact shortly after its proposal there were several small scale experimental demonstrations of the boson sampling algorithm
Natural computing
Quantum cryptography is not based on the complexity of the computation, but on the special properties of quantum information, such as the fact that quantum information cannot be measured reliably and any attempt at measuring it results in an unavoidable and irreversible disturbance. 
A successful open air experiment in quantum cryptography was reported in 2007, where data was transmitted securely over a distance of 144 km. 
Quantum teleportation is another promising application, in which a quantum state (not matter or energy) is transferred to an arbitrary distant location. Implementations of practical quantum computers are based on various substrates such as ion-traps, 
superconductors, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc. 
As of 2006, the largest quantum computing experiment used liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processors, and could operate on up to 12 qubits.