The flaw in your question is the word "here", as in "people here on HN". Dangrover made an important point in his currently-on-the-HN-front-page blog post: I

The flaw in your question is the word "here", as in "people here on HN". Dangrover made an important point in his currently-on-the-HN-front-page blog post: I made this crazy argument to a friend of mine over beer and he countered "but don't people know what websites are?" It made me think. Well, no, as a matter of fact, not really. The web is messy. Webpages link around to each other and, if you're not tech savvy, you can't really keep track of which one you're on or if it's safe to put your bank password into it. Most people don't know if they should search for them or type them into the URL bar. There is one vital feature of the web-page-as-app: navigation. The "Frypaper" app that I downloaded yesterday is guarsnteed to lead me to Stephen Fry's blog, and not to a phishing site. It will do so in one click. It is helpfully labeled with a big picture of Fry with a silly-looking but eye-catching luminous green glow surrounding him, so that I can't help but find the app when I am looking for it. And once I'm inside the Frypaper app I will see the Fry-endorsed experience. I will not have to wonder whether my oddball browser is rendering his stuff right. I will not have to inform Google of anything I do. The cruel fact is that the first step in web navigation - finding somewhere to start clicking - has terrible usability for non-hackers. People don't understand what URLs are. Even those who understand them can barely read them. Google has made billions of dollars exploiting this fact; even I find things on Wikipedia by tabbing to the search bar, typing a word, then clicking the Wikipedia link on the ensuing Google page. (It is, famously, always there.) The amazing thing is that Apple has made the app install process so seamless that apps have better usability than browser bookmarks. And that's why they are better than plain browsers... At least for people who don't read HN. Having said that: I agree with the OP that all the CD-rommish nonsense that app designers put us through actually detracts from the experience. And I do wish it was possible to install browser enhancements on the iPad that persisted from app-to-app; e.g. if I open up a web page from my Twitter client I want to be able to use 1password in that web page.