Bruno Abrantes

The other day I downloaded version 4 of Apple Safari, available to developers through the Apple Developer Connection website. Among claims of huge speed bumps and a new Javascript interpreter, I got curious about a new option present in the File menu: Save as Web Application. 

So, what does it do? Simply put, it creates an .app file on your computer, which, when opened, launches the page you were on when you clicked the option. The only apparent difference this approach has from launching the application directly in Safari is that all the browser toolbars are hidden, letting you focus on the application. Sounds simple, and probably not very useful, right? Wrong. As a matter of fact, I think this innovation could be as important for Apple as dropping the floppy disk.

The Web as we know it is changing. The Web 2.0 has settled in our lives, and the way for the Web 3.0 is being paved. Everyone and their mother is talking about Cloud Computing nowadays, and the Software as a Service business model is all the rage lately. What does this all mean? As browser performance skyrockets and new apps are developed to take advantage of such leaps, the web browser will probably take on an even more central role in our lives, effectively making it the core application in every computer. Most productivity desktop applications (I’m excluding 3d intensive games, for now at least) will begin their migration towards the web, and most of our day-to-day work will be done through the browser.

Such a major change, of course, will require a huge shift in the way people think of software and computers in general. What I think the upcoming Safari release is trying to do, with its Save as Web Application, is bridge the gap between the desktop and the web. Think about it. It’s a web page, but it looks a little like a desktop application. It’s on the dock, and has its own dedicated window. Further down the road, I think Apple will even let us write specific standards-compliant markup in our web apps that will be able to change the menus in the Menu bar. Sure it’s still just a stripped-down Webkit engine that’s set to render a specific page, and the absence of Back and Forward buttons worries me a little. Yet, I feel it’s time for web browsing paradigms to change, and if History tells us anything, Apple might just be the one who can operate such a major overhaul.