While looking for an integrated Facebook/Twitter app that did everything I wanted, I had the chance to play with some Adobe AIR apps I hadn’t tried before, and I noticed a recurring theme.
A lot of AIR apps are basically OOB (out of browser) treatments of popular web services. Desktube provides a browserless interface to YouTube. eBay Desktop is a nice AIR app supplied by eBay that provides an attractive alternative to browsing eBay in a web browser. Both of these apps provide a browserless alternative to using these sites in a web browser. Think website as application.
facedesk is another AIR app, one that provides a browserless interface to Facebook. However in this instance, the app looks exactly like what you get in a web browser. The problem I had with facedesk is that Facebook chat didn’t work like it does in a web browser. Deal breaker for me, but maybe not for you.
facedesk Facebook chat
Facebook Fluid app, chat interface just like the web browser
It made me wonder what the benefit would be to run Facebook as an OOB app, even though I kind of liked the idea.
I dug around a little, and stumbled across Prism and Fluid. Both Prism and Fluid are single site browsers, or SSBs. Prism, based on Mozilla (Firefox, Flock, etc), is available for Windows and Mac, and as a Firefox extension. Fluid, based on Webkit (Safari, Chrome, etc) is Mac only.
How Prism and Fluid work is you enter the url of the site you want and they make a standalone app from that url. When you create a Facebook Prism or Fluid app, you can assign your own icon, give it the name you want, and you end up with a self contained app that interfaces with the web site outside of a web browser instance. There are several advantages to doing so with some sites, YMMV as to the utility of this idea.
Sobees for example, a web interface to social networking sites, has a Silverlight implementation of their web page. The OOB Facebook is broken in the standalone version, which is a deal breaker if Facebook is a priority.
Sobees as a Fluid app
Using Fluid to make a Sobees app is another matter. It works. Another thing I noticed while playing with Facebook and Sobees Fluid apps is that they had a smaller impact on system resources than their AIR and Silverlight counterparts. Less CPU, less RAM, and less threads created.
Resource usage: facedesk vs. Facebook Fluid app
Take a look at Prism and Fluid. Some sites may work better for you outside of the the web browser. Both provide an excellent way to make applications of your frequently used web sites.
