Firefox 5 To Integrate Tab Web Apps

An anonymous reader writes "We are hearing that Firefox 4 is now scheduled for a late March release and that the company has some issues fixing the right bugs as more non-blocking than blocking bugs are patched. However, on a positive note, the UI design team has posted some intriguing mockups of partial Firefox 5 interfaces. The big change will be the creation of a site-specific browser, which turns websites into tab apps within Firefox 5. This is the first time we are seeing Mozilla's ideas on how to deal with the app-ification of the Internet and a strategy to keep the web browser relevant."

Re:App-ification

[RL78]

If a software application is a tool used to help users do one or more related tasks, then even a browser tab could be considered in app running inside the browser. More so if you were to be running a web app like google docs or online banking as opposed to reading an article somewhere. These added app tabs in Firefox and app shortcuts in Chrome just go one step further in treating the tab as its own app environment, giving the look and feel of a stand a lone program. Isn't the web itself an app? The web technically isn't the internet (the hardware and connection mediums) but the suite of software that runs on top of it that enables the communication. The web is what allows us to appify the net. Pushing users to the simplest experience I would think is their goal, with the simplest experience being with their browser. Stripping the browser away and leaving the website or webapp front and center for a specific task doesn't get more simple to me.