Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Mozilla Prism: Your Favorite Web Apps on Your Desktop

Even though it was launched just over a week ago, Mozilla has already abandoned the name WebRunner in favor of the sleeker Prism. Makes sense to us. After all, that's sort of the whole point of the program: giving users a light-weight method for accessing Web apps via their desktops.

It's perhaps not quite so revolutionary as it sounds, and in fact might prove a bit niche-y, in terms of who it appeals to. But surely some people are looking to access Google Docs and Spreadsheets and other Web apps without having to go through the trouble of launching their browsers.

Download Squad has a good rundown of the way the app 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."

Essentially Prism is a desktop-shortcut middleman that cuts out the more resource-heavy browser. Download Squad is predicting integration of the app as a button in Firefox, which actually makes a lot more sense than a standalone download.

No comments:

Post a Comment