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Firefox will eventually let users turn web apps into desktop apps
But sometimes if all you want to do is access your email account or an online image editor like Picnik, you don't really need to fire up a full fledged web browser. A while back Mozilla created a project called Prism that lets you create a desktop shortcut that will open just a single page at a time in a stripped down version of Firefox. Now it looks like Mozilla is planning on integrating that feature with a future version of Firefox.
Here's how it would work. When you visit a web-based application, you'd be able to click a button to turn it into a desktop app. This would create a desktop shortcut to the application and users would be able to open a window showing just that app. For certain applications, like the Flickr Uploader or Zoho Docs, Firefox might allow you to drag and drop files to upload or create file associations in your operating system so that every time you click on a Word document, for example, Zoho Docs would be opened instead of Microsoft Word.
Right now these features are still in the planning stages. But we could see them in future versions of Firefox. Of course, Google Chrome already has a similar feature which lets you create an application shortcut out of any web page with a click of a button using Google Gears.
Comments
14
Subscribe to commentsFilipeDec 30th 2008 12:41PM
google chrome already does it, it's no surprise for me sorry =).
whiskeyDec 30th 2008 9:58PM
Maybe because Prism did it first? It's even had a Firefox extension...
whiskeyDec 30th 2008 10:00PM
HAHAHA Now we have browserfanbois!
Of course it should because it's based on Webkit and Gecko (according to the Google Chrome Comicbook)
And sorry for the double posting...
RocketboyDec 30th 2008 12:41PM
Again, Firefox shows that it's not leading the pack, just using the "embrace and extend" method of adding features.
ThomasDec 30th 2008 12:42PM
Firefox has had this functionality before Chrome came out. So it is leading, it's just taking longer to finish up.
archerDec 30th 2008 12:41PM
top of my wishlist for both chrome and prism: cookie control
TimothyDec 30th 2008 12:42PM
Doesn't prism (Firefox without the URL bar) already do this?
bradDec 30th 2008 1:27PM
Sounds like a great way to have the worst of both world! FAIL.
Stephan SokolowDec 30th 2008 3:23PM
I generally prefer to keep my web apps in my bookmarks toolbar anyway, so this won't help much. When I use a desktop app, I use it because the GUI latency and memory consumption are significantly lower than running web apps in Firefox. (or any other browser, for that matter)
I'm actually considering writing an offline Google Reader clone using PyQt (Python bindings for the Qt widget toolkit) and FeedReader (an "it just works" feed parsing module for Python) for just that reason.
JoshMillerDec 30th 2008 1:34PM
Mozilla (and by extension Firefox) already ha this service available and has for a while.
http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/
PS_4Dec 30th 2008 2:42PM
This works well in google chrome for me because it opens so fast. I just click on my gmail icon to check my gmail. If it will take Firefox as long to open a web app from a shortcut as it takes to open the browser normally, I predict this feature will just become a big chunk of fail.
kingkool68Dec 31st 2008 7:44AM
Google Chrome's implementation of this works really well. Fluid is a great alternative for the Mac and uses little JavaScript snippets to display info like the number of unread GMail's in the dock icon.
EndejasJan 5th 2009 8:18AM
Do most of you citing Prism and Chrome even RTFA?
You can post your obnoxious snippets of information after you've read the entire article.
ErickJan 6th 2009 4:42PM
So does that mean Firefox and its eventual 2gb memory footprint will always be resident?