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Google Chrome "apps" are just websites?

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Madbones
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27 Oct 2011, 4:54 pm

Hey!
I was thinking of making a Google Web App...
But apon discovery most of the apps are just websites.....?
Are they just short cuts in your Chrome browser?



Bloodheart
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27 Oct 2011, 5:15 pm

Essentially, yes, they're just short-cuts.


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Madbones
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27 Oct 2011, 5:25 pm

Bloodheart wrote:
Essentially, yes, they're just short-cuts.

Your kidding?
So basicly... Its a link.
Thats a bit useless.
Would be a good way to promote a service though!



richie
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27 Oct 2011, 7:33 pm

I have one google app short cut on my task bar and that is google news. On my net-book running XP I have numerous google shortcuts on the quick-launch.


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Apple_in_my_Eye
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27 Oct 2011, 7:50 pm

I have the Google Tasks "app" on my taskbar. It may technically be a website, but it functions indistinguishably from a normal non-web-browser app. Also, turning it into a shortcut strips away all the irrelevant browsers controls so that it looks like a normal app window.



sliqua-jcooter
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27 Oct 2011, 10:04 pm

From what I understand, and it's entirely possible that I'm wrong, the key difference between Chrome "apps" and webpages is that apps get access to the API that controls GUI elements of the frame/tab in question.

Because of the architecture of Chrome, each tab/site runs it's own process, so they're able to provide those kinds of APIs over JavaScript without running into security issues.



NeantHumain
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28 Oct 2011, 2:14 pm

sliqua-jcooter wrote:
From what I understand, and it's entirely possible that I'm wrong, the key difference between Chrome "apps" and webpages is that apps get access to the API that controls GUI elements of the frame/tab in question.

Because of the architecture of Chrome, each tab/site runs it's own process, so they're able to provide those kinds of APIs over JavaScript without running into security issues.

This is more or less correct. Google Chrome apps are just web apps written in HTML5 that take advantage of new features like canvas, video, SVG, WebGL, and a bunch of new APIs that can be accessed through JavaScript for everything from geolocation to offline storage to web workers for a sort of multithreading.