How to Turn Web Apps into Desktop Apps

Web apps are more than just interesting little online tools you can play with and forget.    Serious work now takes place exclusively in rich Internet-based applications that mimic, and maybe even replace, the Desktop Computer apps we've been using for decades.
Web apps are beholden to your Web browser: In other words, if the browser crashes, say good bye to your session of work and perhaps some important data. One of the ways around that, besides picking a relatively crash-proof browser (we recommend Google Chrome), is to use a "site-specific browser" to give your Web app some Desktop permanence. You will still need that all-important Internet connection, but running a Web app as if it were a discrete desktop app means more stability and accessibility.

A site-specific browser will work with just about any Web site, you're not limited to an "app" necessarily. You want a permanent link and window for a social network, or your sports score or stock ticker page of preference? You can do that. Give that permanence to Web apps like Facebook, Google Docs, Photoshop Express Editor, JoliCloud, Pandora, Hotmail, Sliderocket, and beyond. You may find you never need to install software again. (Check out the Best Free Web Apps of 2011 for many, many more).

Firefox

If you're using Firefox 6.0 or below, you need to download the WebRunner extension. As of this writing, the version for Firefox 6.0 isn't available on the Mozilla extensions list; however, you can download it at dev.salsitasoft.com. Salsita Software, which develops the add-on, recently announced that WebRunner for Firefox 6.0 will be the last version. There is talk that Mozilla will build in the ability to create a site-specific browser (SSB) for Web apps. WebRunner is based on a tech Mozilla once had called Prism, which was another add-on to make SSBs; it gave it up in 2008 and Salsita took over.
Once installed, make sure you can see the Tools Menu in Firefox. In the latest versions of Firefox, the menus are hidden, but you can bring them back by going to Options>Menu Bar. Next, go to the site you want to turn into a desktop app, and from the Tools menu, select Create WebRunner App. The pop-up you see next lets you select the aspects of the SSB that will be your Web app's new home (nav bars, menu bars, notification area, etc.), and where you want shortcuts to appear (Desktop, Start menu, or Quick Launch bar). You can even choose the icon you want to associate with the shortcut.
Launch the shortcut and you'll find a new, pin-able icon for your Web app at the bottom of the Windows 7 task bar for easy access. If you open up Windows Task Manager, you’ll see that webrunner.exe is running its own process. Now, when Firefox crashes, your Web app in the SSB won't. And it works across all platforms, not just Windows, including MacOS and Linux.

Chrome

The ability to create an SSB is built into Google Chrome. Surf to a Web app, click on the wrench icon on the toolbar, select Tools, and then Create application shortcut. The shortcut choices are slim: You can only specify where your shortcut lives (Desktop, Start menu, or pinned to the taskbar).
The SSB you get is pretty basic: a single page that shows the Web app you picked. If you use it to link to another Web page, it'll open up the Chrome browser to show the new page. You can't see the processes separately in Task Manager, they all say Chrome.exe. In fact, you'll see several, even if there's only one window open; Chrome has a process for every tab open and extension installed. (Access the Chrome Task Manager by right clicking the browser title bar.) The Chrome SSBs are still separate processes, so you can avoid crashing with the browser.
Unfortunately, you can't make an app browser window that takes advantage of Chrome's Incognito feature, which lets you avoid cookies and other tracking.
Internet Explorer
The latest Internet Explorer (IE), version 9, features the ability to pin a specific Web site to the Windows taskbar. There's no right click menuing—just drag the tab to the Windows taskbar and the shortcut will be created, already pinned to the taskbar by default. Each new window, when launched, gets its own Task Manager entry.
The icon for the Web app will appear on the SSB in the upper-left-hand corner by the navigation buttons. You can launch pages into new tabs, but you'll always have acess back to the original via that icon. Right click the launch icon in the taskbar and you can start an InPrivate browsing session with your Web app.
Safari
Mac-only folks who prefer the Safari browser have their own SSB alternative called Fluid. It builds SSBs for your Web apps using Safari's WebKit layout engine. The free version lets you create all the Web app icons you'd want, but for $5, you can get extra features like separate cookie storage, the ability to pin apps to the doc, and userscript support.
Install Fluid, launch it, and then enter the URL for the Web app you want. Give it a name and you can tell it where to store the shortcut (usually in Applications). Click Create and you've got a "Fluid App" ready to launch. Some of them will even support "dock badges" so you can see, for example, the number of unread messages you have in Facebook or Gmail. To run Fluid, you need an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or better. Top Gadgets Review