The web browser as the center of all our activity. That is the goal that Google set for itself with its Chrome browser, to the point that it created an operating system around that idea, Chrome OS. For this Chrome must do more than show web pages, it must have its own applications that replace the traditional ones. At first the company hoped to achieve that with simple web apps, packaged in a .crx file like its extensions, but over time that concept evolved into Chrome Apps.
A concept with more possibilities
Chrome Apps have more requirements than web apps, in an attempt to offer a standard to the user. For example, Chrome Apps have to offer the possibility of working offline, without Internet access; in return, Google offers developers more possibilities by being able to access the browser API for features such as native notifications, or its own window on the desktop.
From now on, Chrome Apps will be the only apps that Google accepts for Chrome. In particular, in December of this year the normal web apps will disappear from the Chrome store, although they will be able to continue working until June of next year, when they will lose support.
On one side, this decision will be very good for Chrome users, which will see how apps take better advantage of the possibilities of the browser and evolve towards more than just web pages. Furthermore, this force developers to launch a version of their web app exclusively for Chrome, with the work that this implies; One of the good things about web apps is that if you meet web standards it should work in any browser, but Chrome Apps only work in the browser of the same name.
Does Google do well to apply this policy? By betting on its own concept of browser app, Google has also created its own fenced garden, in which developers have to stay if they want to reach users of one of the most used browsers in the world.
Source | Chromium | Google Chrome
