Okay Geek Farm
Why Google Chrome web apps aren't all that stupid
Brandon Davenport
Well something happened after we recorded the next episode of the podcast (it’s going to be mind-blowing by the way), an intense act of impulse occurred and we are now in the Google Chrome Web App store for some reason. We don’t quite know how it happened, but here’s what we could remember from the ordeal.
We were in the middle of “after show” banter, and I had a brilliant idea to create a Google Chrome application despite our other editors expressing how stupid of an idea it would be. Despite the warnings, I went ahead and started work on the app, with a few pleasant surprises along the way.
How Chrome Apps Work
They aren’t apps, they’re links — every Google Chrome Web App is simply a link to a website, which seems stupid at first, but after you dig into the possibilities it really is brilliant. Imagine being able to build an application in a familiar language like HTML, JavaScript and CSS, and allow people to run it in their browser like a desktop app.
This is the source code for the T3ch H3lp Chrome App:
{“name”: “T3ch H3lp”,“description”: “Read great news, reviews and how to’s from your friends at T3ch H3lp”,“version”: “9001”,“app”: {“urls”: [”*://t3chh3lp.com/”,”*://www.t3chh3lp.com/”],“launch”: {“web_url”: “http://t3chh3lp.com/”}},“icons”: {“128”: “google-app-icon.png”},“permissions”: [“unlimitedStorage”,“notifications”]}
Thats it! This is the code that we submitted to Google to being our website to more people — all with a few lines of code and all in a neat 13KB package. When you install a Chrome app, it downloads this tiny file (installs instantly) and sits there until you click it. When you do, it loads a website, which seems redundant (hello, bookmarks?) but in reality this isn’t what really matters.
Why the Chrome Web App Store is awesome
Companies have built stuff on the internet for a long time, like CoTweet and Hootsuite, which are web apps or services which provide neat functionality normally exclusive to desktop apps. There are literality thousands of apps like these and they’re all great, but almost all of them go un-noticed. They’re already built and ready, but they’re not getting the attention they deserve.
What the Chrome Web App store provides is a way for all of these ready-to-go apps which lack an audience, to latch on to a market which didn’t exist before — an app store for websites. Sure there are “App stores”, but these house apps that you can only get in that one place, but the Chrome app store allows users to find all of this cool stuff that has been around for a long time and never really found a home — it’s a free advertising in a sense — plus it isn’t a “walled garden”, it’s the internet for god sakes, it’s as open as it’s gonna’ get!
“Bookmarks” seem sort of old now
When you think of it, bookmarks have revolutionized the way we gather information, from old paper books to the dawn of the web — they have been around for thousands of years and it’s time we did more things with them. I don’t think Google is trying to change bookmarks, they’re trying to change the way we think of them. Not bookmarking webpages, but bookmarking entire places and giving more power to the little guys who make these cool apps, and inspiring others to create neat little apps, and submitting them to the store.
What I’m trying to say is, we’re going to see many more cool little apps online because having a place to promote them (where others will actually see them) is very appealing, and not having to change the way you make them is really encouraging — never mind users never having to download an “update”.
Install T3ch H3lp for Chrome — We will give you one internet!
