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Comment by 9oliYQjP | Hacker News Reader

What's interesting here is that a lot of the commenters -- myself included -- are blurring the definition of what a web app is. I wonder why that is? I don't have a point other than to ask that question, because my gut tells me it would be an interesting thing to investigate.

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In general, I'd put it like this:

A "web application" is a browser-based tool that allows a user to create and consume content.

A "web site" is a browser-based tool that allows a user to consume content.

Yes; for me the test has always been that a web app has something equivalent to File->New.

To me, a website is a website. Just because it has forms, uses the "cloud", and has a shiny logo doesn't stop it from being a website. The only websites I use that are anywhere close to "application" functionality are GMail and thesixtyone, and even then it's just ajax frosting on top of a delicious html cake.

I fail how to see how using HTML and Javascript keep something from being an application. To be an application it has to run on the desktop, and not the browser?

It's about level of interactivity, responsiveness, and robustness. Shiny web front-ends to a relational database just don't compete on the same level as desktop workhorses. Mint, Gmail, and Freshbooks are nice web "applications", but their innovation is in solving simple problems with incredible interfaces. The innovation in Textmate, and Photoshop is that they enable a high amount of manipulation and automation that simply can't be delivered over the web at this time.

To be an application, you certainly don't need to meet the levels of interactivity, responsiveness, or robustness as Textmate or Photoshop. Maybe to you that's what an application is, but under a more standard definition all a piece of software needs to do to be considered an application is to interact with a user to do a specific task. It has nothing to do with value judgements. A crappy cgi guestbook is technically a web application. It doesn't matter that it's slow and only does one thing.

I don't mean to affront but isn't that why we're all here; to evolve the web app?

To me the point of starting up is taking a crack at what you'd like to see the web become.

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