Ask HN: Are installable webapps feasible/worthwhile? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are installable webapps feasible/worthwhile?

5 pointsinstallable3 comments

I've an idea for a consumer-oriented HTML5 app that I'm working on. Without giving away too much information, it's an age-old piece of consumer software that's typically done as a shrink-wrap, install-from-CD kind of thing. But these days, most of the core functionality can be done right in the browser, so I'm developing a webapp to do just that.

How important is it that such an app be "installable" for consumers? The potential concerns as I see them are:

1. puts an icon in the Start Menu/Dock

2. app works offline

Assuming these things even matter, is it feasible to build apps that can do this? Although HTML5 supports offline operation (http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/offline.html) I'm not sure it's widely implemented yet.

Chrome has an app store (http://code.google.com/chrome/apps) but you apparently need a developer build of Chrome for it to work.

Perhaps installability isn't needed at all for a MVP... a simple bookmark might suffice. Thoughts?

I think its gonna take some time for this approach to standardize across browsers. Right now, Chrome is offering installable apps solely to allow developers to charge and to allow users instant access to webapps. IE9 beta is doing somewhat the same by having users instant access through pinning webapps onto the taskbar. Safari and Firefox will definitely have some solutions that are likewise. At the very core, your webapp will still be accessible through a url. And if you would like to extend your reach, why not make it as an installable app for Chrome, which just requires some extra manifest files. Unless you want that app to totally be at the client side? I hope i am not interpreting it wrongly.

Well, item 1 is really a simple thing. I'd just start it as a bookmark, then I'm sure you can find a wrapper that will allow you to push a bookmark into the start menu. Really shouldn't be hard.

For item 2, that depends on your product. Your statement, "without giving away too much information," makes me think you're overvaluing your idea. I'd be happy to offer more advice on 2, but without knowing the product and target market, it's tough to estimate how important it is. For someone who spends a lot of time on the plane, it's vitally important. For someone like me, working in the office all day, with wired internet, not that important.

Fair enough. It's a typing tutor. Obviously these have been around forever, and there are even some in-browser implementations already, but I'd like to try my hand at it.

Thanks for your feedback.

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