There’s a web app for that is a new Google Chrome extension that may help in the discovery of new Chrome apps. While it does not provide access to web store sorting options, it suggests extensions and web apps based on past visits and current visits.

The extension displays a list of suggested web apps based on the history directly after installation.

A click on a link opens a matching extension in the Chrome store. It is not clear how the resulting web app is selected. The extension seems to pick the first search result automatically. This may or may not match the user’s expectations.

Chrome users can open the page at anytime with a click on Wrench > Tools > Extensions and the Options link under the There’s a web app for that listing on the page.

Suggestions based on the past browsing history are fine, but what about suggestions for the active site in the browser? There’s a web app for that supports this as well. It automatically scans for extensions that match the active page. A blue plus icon next to the bookmark star in the address bar indicates that an extension has been found for the page.

A click on the icon loads the discovered extension in a new tab in the browser.

There’s a web app for that is a handy extension for Chrome users who want automatic extension suggestions for sites they visit. It could use some polishing and direct explanations on the suggestion screen though.

Chrome users can download and install There is a web app for that from the Chrome web store. (via)

The first public record of a Mozilla apps store dates back to the year 2009, see Mozilla Considering App Store For Add-Ons for details.

Mozilla is now demoing their own web apps store that supports Firefox and the Google Chrome browser. The Open Web Apps for Firefox extension or Open Web Apps for Chrome extension needs to be installed before the web apps become available in the selected web browser.

The installation adds a single button to the browser. Firefox users can move the button around after selecting customize from View > Toolbars. A click on the button displays all installed web apps. A click on a web app opens the page in a new app tab in the browser. App tab? Little pinned favicons that are displayed in front of all standard tabs.

Apps are installed by hovering over their icon on the web apps demo page and selecting the install button. The installation confirmation dialog is different. Firefox users see a small installation window at the top of the browser,

Google Chrome users an overlay instead.

The demo pages offers 17 gaming related web apps at this point in time, but that’s fine since it is only used for demonstrative purposes. The web apps engine supports auto discovery of web applications. A user who has the web apps extension installed will be notified if a page offers an installable web application.

A click on the manage button in the web apps interface opens the list of installed applications with options to remove them again from the browser and to view their manifest. The page is also accessibly by entering about:apps into the Firefox address bar.

It would make sense to eventually integrate the list of installed open web apps in the Firefox add-ons manager.

Is it possible to install apps that are currently offered in the Google Chrome web apps store? No that does not seem to be possible.

Mozilla seems to have plans to integrate web apps support into a future version of Firefox so that the installation of the extension would no longer be needed to install and use web apps in the Firefox web browser. This could happen in firefox 6, according to the Mozilla Firefox development roadmap for 2011. Firefox 6 is expected to land in the third quarter of 2011. (via)

Update: The extension is no longer available on the official add-on repository.

It appears that Google is not the only company that experiments in that direction. Mozilla’s Paul Rouget published a screencast today that demonstrated some of his HTML5 and native control experiments.

What’s the video about? It first shows how websites could add controls to the context menu of the browser. Examples are images that can be rotated or a new Twitter message dialog that can be launched that way.

That however was only the preparation for the second part of the demonstration where Paul showed how App tabs could utilize that feature and the previously mentioned Site Specific Browsers feature (see Firefox 5 Could Look Like This) to offer a new user experience.

Paul envisions different states for the browser, depending whether an app tab is active or a normal website. App tabs get rid of the url bar and make use of context menu controls and the new “site specific browsers” feature that is placed next to the Firefox button.

His idea basically is to give a webpage more control over the browser interface by giving it the means to “expose native controls to the UA”, the context menu and, if it is a web app, options to get “rif of the URL / Back Forward Too bar”.

Take a look at the video for a short demonstration, or visit Paul’s blog directly for additional information.

Users who would like to try the experimental feature can download an experimental add-on from Paul’s website.

Please note that this is just an experiment and not something that is planned to be integrated into one of the next versions of the Firefox web browser.

I personally think that it is not a good idea to give webpages or services control over the browser’s context menu or user interface elements. Why? Because for the large percentage of sites that will make use of the feature in a positive way or ignore it, there will be minority of sites that abuse it if possible. Think of adding thousands of entries to the context menu (which could be easily prevented by setting a limit) or adding links or ads to it (which could be difficulty to prevent). Then there are security implications. Phishing websites for instance are easily identified by their web address. Removing the chance to verify the address removes the most reliable option of identifying phishing websites from the browser.

Another thought that came to mind is that the site specific browsers menu makes navigation more complicated. It may just be me but having two buttons open for a website, instead of one button seems to make things more complicated. I’m no user interface experts but would not it be better to integrate the “Site Specific Browsers” functionality right into the tab so that only one button is displayed for a website?

Please let me know what you think of the idea? Complicated or ingenious?

Lets take a look first at how extensions and web apps can be installed. The majority of extensions is available at the Google Chrome extensions gallery. Web apps on the other hand are available at the Chrome web store.

But there is more to it than just a different location on the Internet. Web apps, according to Google are “applications you can run inside your browser with a dedicated user interface and, typically, rich user interaction”. Web apps therefor are nothing more than interactive websites at this point in time. Google’s intention is to formalize “the web app concept in a way that will be familiar to anyone who’s used apps on a smartphone”.

A web app basically is a link to an interactive application on the Internet.

Extensions on the other hand often extend the functionality of the Chrome browser and websites viewed with the browser. They are not limited to providing their functionality on a specific website either.

Compared to apps, extensions cut across websites and web apps; they are usually in effect across all websites (though some are site-specific). Apps don’t combine with other apps in this way; they run standalone, like any regular website.

There is another difference between web apps and extensions. Users who want to install web apps need a Google account to do so. Extensions on the other hand can be installed without an account.

Additional information about web apps and extensions are available at the Apps vs. Extensions article at Google Code.

The dev team may have gone overboard with the latest additions to the latest Chrome 10 Dev released (see How To Remove Elements From Google Chrome’s New Tab Page). What happened? Google seemed to have started to like the idea of changing the default Chrome new tab page. First it was an advertisement for the Chrome OS Netbook which somehow cannot be hidden permanently, which in itself is ridiculous considering that it is shown to users from all over the world but only users from the US can apply for the beta test.

The latest addition is the apps section which is linked to the Chrome Web Store. The Chrome web store offers applications and games that can be installed and used. Google now thought it would be a good idea to ship two games with the Chrome browser.

Games? Yes, that is right. There is no prompt if the games should be installed, they are simply there. And while it is possible to uninstall them, it is likely that a lot of Chrome users find this behavior unacceptable.

I personally have another objection to this. It is bad enough that there is no dialog that asks the user whether those games should be installed or not. Even worse is the precedent that this could be. What if Google adds a trial for an application or game the next time, or an inappropriate application?

There does not seem to be a control available to block the behavior. On the other hand, this is only available in the dev version of the Chrome browser as of now. It will be interesting to see if the developers add the games to the beta and release versions of the browser as well.

What’s your take on this? Let me know in the comments.

The move which is backed by €10M in funding, aims to create apps that would work on any device from Internet TVs to smartphones and tablets.

There are some big names behind the project too including Telecom Italia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and the World Wide Web Consortium.  It is being led by the German Graunhofer Institute for Open Communications Systems (Fokus).

The move would be very welcome with consumers and reminds this commentator of the introduction of the C programming language, which also came with claims at the time of unifying code across platforms.  It was relatively successful in this regard, but now companies such as Apple have moved to different language and instruction sets and are forcing developers to use specific development tools for their own platforms in the name of security and stability.

“The problem is the extreme platform fragmentation,” said project lead Stephan Steglich.  “We have a lot of different platforms that apps run on – the iPhone, Android, Symbian – and that’s only on the mobile side. If you extend that to include the automotive part and consumer electronic area you have more platforms,” Dr Steglich told BBC News.  

“Companies can afford to have an app on two or at most three platforms – they’re extremely costly to develop and ensure the user experience.  “That’s what we want to address – to provide a system that runs on all these platforms and domains, where the developer comes up with one application for one platform and lets you run it on all these devices – mobiles, automotive, gaming, and so on.”

There is really little reason why modern operating systems cannot allow programs written for different platforms, and using different tools and languages, to run effectively.  This is doubly relevant as we are now beginning to see examples of virtualization demos on smartphones and as the mainstream processors become fast, powerful and cheap enough to accommodate this.

The move aims to develop web apps that will work across these platforms.  ”The greatest common denominator among all these devices is the web browser – that’s the only thing people can use to accept the same content,” Dr Steglich explained.  This will enable cross-platform compatibility and slash development costs.  Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 9 beta software is demonstrating how web apps can look and be treated by an operating system as though they’re installed on the computing device itself.

The move isn’t without its critics and many believe it won’t get off the ground, but it will be welcomed by consumers and app developers alike and, sometimes, that’s just enough to create a critical momentum.

Google’s plan is to offer Chrome Web Apps in the new Chrome Web Store launched later this year. They are free and paid apps that Chrome users can install in the web browser.

Chrome Web Apps are listed in the extension manager of the browser and there are only a few differences currently between extensions and Chrome Web Apps.

Installed Chrome Web Apps are displayed by default on the new tab page where they can be easily accessed, providing that only a handful of them are installed on the computer system.

google chrome web apps

A click on a web app will open it on the left of the tabbar. The tab icons look on first look similar to those of pinned tabs with the exception that they sport higher resolutions since they do not use favicons but local icons.

chrome web apps

The screenshot above shows two Chrome web apps and one pinned tab. Both Gmail and Google Calendar are web apps. Clicking on them opens the web page of the service in the browser. That sounds awfully lot like creating a pinned tab for a service to access it in the browser. We honestly have not been able to figure out existing differences between Chrome web apps and pinned tabs at this point, with the exception of the nicer looking tab icons and the fact that the web apps are listed on new tab pages.

We assume that the first extensions are only there to exemplify the concept. The Techcrunch article for instance has shown screenshots of games, which are probably run locally and not on a website.

chrome web apps games

As you can see on the screenshot above there is no url in the address bar suggesting that it is run locally (or that the url has been removed from the screenshot).

How to enable Chrome Web Apps in Google Chrome Dev

Chrome Web Apps can be enabled in Google Chrome – and Chromium for that matter. Lee over at the Download Squad posted the instructions, here they are again for quick reference.

• Google Chrome ships with three web apps for testing purposes. They provide Google Docs, Gmail and Google Calendar functionality.
• The apps are located in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\6.0.453.1\Resources\ on Windows. Please note that the version changes with every Chrome release.
• You need to add the startup parameter –enable-apps to the browser. Easiest way to do that is to create a shortcut, right-click the shortcut and select properties. The target should look similar to this in the end C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –enable-apps
• Now open the extensions menu by clicking on the Wrench icon in the Chrome toolbar, then Tools and Extensions.
• Select Load unpacked extensions and navigate to the Resources folder. Each Chrome web app has to be installed separately.
• The web apps appear immediately on the New Tab page where they can be launched.

What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks to the Mozilla Labs there is Prism. Prism is unlike other proprietary solutions like Silverlight. Prism is basically a way to split web apps from the browser and run them directly on the desktop. Although not always as small as, say, a Google Gadget, Prism tools are far more functional and do not strip features from the tools you use. For example, if you are using the Prism Google Document tool, you will have a fully functioned instance of whatever app you are using. In this tutorial you will learn how to install Prism and some of the apps as well as configure shortcuts for your menu.

Installing

As you would expect, Prism can be found in your distributions’ repository. So to install, follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “prism” (no quotes).
3. Select Prism (and any apps you will want installed) for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

Once installed you have a number of options available to you for starting applications. If you look in your Internet sub-menu in your Application menu you will most like find a number of Prism-enabled applications already there. You will also find an entry for the Prism tool itself. This tool is really the best place to start if your app isn’t found in the menu.

If, however, the app you want to use is found in the Internet menu go ahead and fire it up. You will notice that the Prism-enabled apps look and feel exactly as if they were in your browser – minus the browser menus, toolbars, address bars, etc.

But if you do not find the app you want to use worry not, most likely you will be able to get it working through Prism. Let’s use an Apple Web app as an example. If you take a visit to the Apple web application site you will find numerous applications you can use. Let’s use the DataCalc app as an example. When you visit the DataCalc page you will find the app URL – this is the URL you are going to use for the Prism app.

Figure 1

Now, go to the Internet sub-menu and click on the Prism entry. This will open up a blank Prism window with a smaller configuration window (see Figure 1). Enter the DataCalc URL in the URL text area and enter

Figure 2

DataCalc for the Name. Finally click the checkbox next to Desktop to add a clickable icon to your desktop. Click the OK button and the icon will appear on your desktop and a Prism window will appear with your web app running (see Figure 2). NOTE: You may have to set the icon as Trusted when you double click it. This will not only enable the icon to be clickable, it will also change the icon appearance. When you close out this Prism App, all you have to do to restart it is to double click the icon.

I have yet to find a means to add a Prism app menu entry when the app is installed in this manner. All Prism apps that are installed via Synaptic will have menu entries.

Final thoughts

We all know the desktop is trying desperately to evolve into a web app-based cloud. If you’re interested in getting a feel for what this is like, give Prism a try.