Some of the applications I use most often aren't desktop apps, they're web apps that I access through a web browser. Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs, for example. GMDesk is an Adobe AIR-based client for these and other Google-based services. It's based on the idea that you shouldn't have to fire up a web browser just to check your email.

The concept is sound, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. We've seen other attempts at taking web apps away from the browser. Bubbles and Mozilla Prism are two examples. But as with those programs, GMDesk just doesn't seem to offer much functionality that you couldn't get from a browser. What's more, while Prism and Bubbles offer stripped-down browser-style windows that tend to be a little lighter on your computer's RAM usage than Firefox or Internet Explorer, GMDesk eats 100+ MB of RAM as soon as you launch it.

There are two other factors that make GMDesk a bit limiting. First, the fonts in Gmail are kind of small and awkward to read. And second, you can only have one window open at a time. So if you like to keep both Gmail and Google Reader open throughout the day, you're going to want to fire up a web browser.

That isn't to say that GMDesk is useless. If the developer can reduce the RAM usage, and/or allow you to open multiple windows or multiple tabs, it would be nice for Gmail addicts to keep a window open all day while resisting the temptation to do some web surfing when they should be working.

[via CyberNet]

Mozilla has released an updated version of Prism, an application that lets open web applications like Gmail, Google Docs, or Zoho Writer in a stripped down Firefox-like browser. The result is that you can quickly launch web applications and treat them as if they were desktop applications.

The most noticeable change is that Firefox 3 beta users don't need to download and install Prism as a separate application. They can just install a new Prism extension for Firefox 3. Once installed, you can visit any web site in Firefox and convert it into an application and place a shortcut on your desktop or in your start menu.

If you're not using Firefox 3, you can download the standalone installer for Prism 0.9 for Windows, Mac, or Linux. The latest build also includes the ability to pick an icon for your shortcut, and create a separate profile for each web application.

Like having Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr, and other web services at your fingertips, but don't feel like keeping RAM-hungry Firefox open all day? Bubbles is a Windows application lets you run web services in their own individual windows, no Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer required.

When you first run Bubbles, you'll see a list of web sites which you can open with the application. You can also add any page you want just by entering the URL. You can start a web app by clicking the "Go" button and you should see icons for each application pop up in your Windows system tray. Click on one to bring up the web app of your choice. Clicking the X bar doesn't close the window, but minimizes it to the system tray. In order to really close a window you'll need to right-click on its icon and select close.

Bubbles appears to use less memory than Firefox when accessing some web pages like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. But we noticed a window running Google Reader quickly grew to use 50MB. Overall Bubbles seems like a slick and easy to use alternative to Mozilla Prism. But there is room for improvement. For example, when you click on a link in a Bubble window, instead of opening a new Bubble, the program opens your default web browser, which sort of defeats the purpose if you want to do anything besides read web pages.

Bubbles has actually been around a lot longer than Prism, but it works pretty well with modern web applications and supports Greasemonkey. There's even a Gmail notifier that works even with the newer version of Gmail.

[Thanks Jim Mauro!]

Yesterday we posted a short article about Pandora's Box, a desktop client for Pandora that lets users access the streaming music service without opening a web browser. And our intelligent Download Squad readers instantly started sending us suggestions for alternate clients. So here's a roundup of some of the best applications for listening to Pandora without a web browser.

OpenPandora

One of the oldest and most feature-packed desktop Pandora clients is OpenPandora (picture above), which we first mentioned back in 2006. OpenPandora lets you do pretty much everything you can do at Pandora.com including listening to multiple stations, using the QuickMix feature, and giving songs a thumbs up or down. OpenPandora also has a few features that most other clients lack, like a mini-player mode that just displays the player/pause, volume, and next track buttons. It also packs a built-in proxy feature allowing users outside of the US to access Pandora and global hotkey shortcuts allowing you to control playback while OpenPandora hides in your system tray.

Do you have Gmail perma-tabbed in your browser window? Are you a Google Docs devotee? Is Facebook bookmarked as your home page?

If you nodded your head to any of the above questions (or blushed in embarrassment from your web 2.0 addictions), then Fluid is something you should take a look at.

Fluid, a beta download for Mac OS X Leopard, creates Site Specific Browsers that run as independent desktop applications. In other words, you can put a Gmail browser page on your desktop, complete with its own customizable dock icon and standard menu bar. The best thing is, if Firefox (or any web browser) should happen to crash, your desktop application is untouched.

So how does it work?

Launch Fluid to see a small display window where you can specify the URL of the webapp, give the window a name, and choose a customized or default icon (there's even a whole Flickr group of downloadable high-res icons). Click "create," and then launch your application. That's all there is to it.

Fluid gets its inspiration from Prism, a project by Mozilla labs. However, because Fluid is Mac only, and is based on Safari's WebKit rendering engine, it claims a more native look and feel over Prism.

Fluid is currently in beta (version 0.6), and requires Leopard.

Mozilla has launched Mac and Linux versions of Prism. What's Prism again? It's a stripped down version of Firefox that essentially lets you load a single web page at a time. No tabs, no useful URL or navigation buttons. But Prism can come in handy if you like to keep a single web site like Gmail open all day, since it uses fewer resources than Firefox.

The Linux build that we tested was a little wonky. Pressing F11 fails to make a window fullscreen. And Prism didn't seem to notice that Adobe Flash was installed, which made it pretty difficult to run certain web apps.

All in all, for a 0.8 release, we're not complaining. But there's still some work to be done.

[via Chip Cuccio]

Oh experimental applications, they grow up so quickly. It seems like just last week we were telling you about Mozilla WebRunner, a stripped down version of Firefox with no tabs or URL bar. And now WebRunner's all grown up and has a new name: Prism.

OK, all grown up might be an overstatement. But Mozilla has outlined their goals for the simple web browser: to let you access web applications without firing up Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or whatever it is you're using to read this site.

Here's how it works. You download and install Prism. The first time you run it, a window will pop up asking you for a URL, name, and where you'd like to "install" the application. Installation basically means creating a shortcut on your desktop, Start Menu, or Quick Launch Bar. To "uninstall" a web app, just delete the shortcut.

While you could argue Prism is just a glorified way of making desktop shortcuts to web pages, something we've been able to do for years, it's a bit more than that. Because Prism doesn't feature all the bells, whistles, toolbars, and add-ons of Firefox, it's a very light weight browser. And if you just want to access Google Reader, Gmail, or Zoho, that might be enough.

Eventually, Mozilla may integrate Prism with Firefox. In other words, there would be a toolbar menu that says "make this a desktop app." Any time you visit a website that you want to open with Prism in the future, you could click a button to activate the Prism settings menu.