Creating a Site-specific Browser for FreeAgent

By Olly Headey on Monday 20 October 2008

A new technology which has caught our attention recently is the Site-specific Browser (SSB). It's a simple idea which allows you to take a web application of your choice — such as FreeAgent, Gmail or Flickr — and make it act like a traditional, standalone desktop application with the browser menu and address bar removed, and with it's own icon in the dock (if you're a Mac user) or in the task bar or Start Menu (if you're on Windows).

Why should I do this?

The main advantages to creating an SSB for a website are simplicity and convenience. If there's a site you use frequently, creating an SSB will allow you to click on an icon to launch or switch to the application without the need to use your browser. Once your SSB is up and running, you can easily switch between running applications using the Dock (Mac) or Task Bar (Windows) just like you do with all your other apps. And it looks fantastic too — here's a FreeAgent SSB running on OSX:

I like the sound of this, how do I do it?

All you need to do is install a simple application which will create an SSB application for you, based on a URL. If you're a Mac user, download and install Fluid. If you're a Windows user, you can choose between Bubbles and the open-source Prism. Once installed, creating the SSB is as simple as entering the URL of the web site.

A finishing touch

If you're sold and want to create an SSB for FreeAgent, we've created a set of glossy icons to give the application a slick, professional look. You can download these icons in a single ZIP file.

Over to you...

Stuart Jones

Posted on : Tue October 21, 2008

That's impressive.

David McDonald

Posted on : Wed October 22, 2008

Glad to see you recommending Fluid, I'm a big fan of it for all my web apps. Here's another thing that goes well with Fluid: http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password
This app allows you to enter password details with one click or, in the case of SSBs with a control-click. This makes logging on to the site easy & seamless when using SSB apps.
1Password has many other uses too, I'm not in their employ, just evangelising a great Mac product.

Cheers.

David McDonald

Posted on : Wed October 22, 2008

Oh and, very thoughtful of you to supply the icons for SSB, it does make using these apps behave a lot more like native versions. Thanks.

Dave Nattriss

Posted on : Thu October 30, 2008

Just to let you know what Google Chrome (currently available in Beta for Windows) also supports this (they call it an 'application shortcut'). I've switched from using Prism/Firefox to this as it uses less memory and CPU. Obviously Windows-only at the moment.

http://www.google.com/chrome/

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