Tag Archives: apps

With Sites as Apps, Apps as Sites

From the one and only, Jeffrey Zeldman:

Zeldman Facebook iPhone screenshot

Zeldman says:

Little tip. People don’t want apps to look and work more like websites. They want websites to look and work more like apps.

My gut reaction to this insight is mixed.

On one hand, many new websites are in essence single serving apps. They have no more functionality than extremely niche smartphone apps. On the other hand, websites are visually distinct from apps. What I mean is, sites have been apps for a while now, but they don’t look exactly like smartphone apps. Even with responsive design, sites simply don’t use smartphone title bars and buttons.

Would the average user prefer simple smartphone app UI over tried and true website navigation metaphors? This could be the tradeoff between vertical-scrolling, hierarchical panes VS complex, kitchen sink pages.

An Exercise in Sharing

This post is more thinking out loud (what I like to do on this blog). Free association with services and sharing.

Snoop Dogg on Instagram

Many sites serve to provide information (such as Wikipedia). Other sites share info (such as Fmylife). What I want to focus on are services that share info in a defined social group. Meaning that you can cultivate lists of friends and share with them. These social sites may enable you to share publicly. In fact, they may be incentivized to make everything public (à la Facebook).

Here are some services I came up with in no particular order:

Service Sharing
Instagram Photos
Twitter Text/Links
Ping (from Apple) Music
Foursquare Location
Group Me Txt
Buzz (from Google) RSS, etc.
Yelp Reviews
Foodspotting Food Photos
Facebook User Updates
Blippy Purchases
Scribd Documents

Clearly there are services I’ve missed.

For any unfilled areas, there exists a startup opportunity. Instagram is a newcomer that has gained significant traction, so anything can be done given proper execution.

Is there a search engine that shares all your searches on purpose? What about an Instagram for short video?