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I just wish that “web applications” were more clearly distinguished from regular web sites. I hate that a regular website I may tap on a search result would ev

I just wish that “web applications” were more clearly distinguished from regular web sites. I hate that a regular website I may tap on a search result would ever want to send me notifications. But, if a site that is clearly more of an “application” to me (like an online spreadsheet or chat app, etc) wants to send me notifications, that could be a useful feature. If there were a more clear delineation between the two, I could just avoid tapping anything that is labeled as an “app” in search results (or just ban them from my search engine), and restrict myself to “plain old webpages” only when searching. And “plain old webpages” would be even further restricted than they already are: No notifications prompts, no ability to see my accelerometer, no offline storage available, etc etc. It’s nice that the web has turned into a viable app platform, but it doesn’t mean I want every page I visit to be allowed to have “app-like” capabilities. In an ideal world 95% of the web would just be plain old documents accessed over HTTP(S) and the “apps” would be distinguishable as such.

jtbayly 5y ago
Interesting idea, but it sort of falls down in my mind when I think about forums. I want notifications for some forums that I join. And I certainly don't want to remove forums from search results. They're the only place you can get decent product reviews right now.
merrywhether 5y ago
A great heuristic would just be only granting notification prompt permission after you’ve installed the PWA to your Home Screen. That shows clear interest by the user in a longer-term relationship with the app, and they could grant other expanded prompt permissions based on that also.
- rabuse 5y ago
  This will probably be the way it's handled honestly. I think it's the best option.
  - tata71 5y ago
    how it is handled, on modern devices, for years.
- The_rationalist 5y ago
  Most users never add a shortcut to the home screen and yet use plenty of web apps.
  - coder543 5y ago
    Apple could certainly do more to help people understand that they can install web apps to their home screen. Right now, it is an option that few users are aware of, buried in the menus as it is, and even fewer think about it. When a related app is available in the App Store, Apple will show a big banner at the top of the web page encouraging you to install it... but they won't do anything for a PWA. I think requiring "installation" of a PWA is a great way to balance the concerns people have about getting spammed with requests to spam you with notifications you don't want... but I also wish Apple would support PWAs better in general, so I can see it both ways.
kitsunesoba 5y ago
I would find this type of differentiation useful as well. “Plain” sites are generally faster to skim through for what I’m looking for, (no gauntlet of spinning loading wheels and dialogs or JS gumming up functions like Find in Page) so it would be nice to be able to prioritize those in search results. One way to do this would be for the crawler to compare the content of JS-enabled and JS-disabled states and if they differ dramatically, the web destination gets tossed in the “web app” bucket.
riskable 5y ago
Hate to break this to you but even a website that consists of nothing but HTML (no CSS/JS) is still an "app". It's still being executed in the runtime environment of your browser when you load it. Just because the website chose to limit it's use of the features to just one (HTML) doesn't mean it's not an app (when executed in a web browser). If you read that HTML in a text editor then yeah, that's not an app but if you're reading it in a web browser you're "running it".

jtbayly 5y ago

Interesting idea, but it sort of falls down in my mind when I think about forums. I want notifications for some forums that I join. And I certainly don't want to remove forums from search results. They're the only place you can get decent product reviews right now.

merrywhether 5y ago

A great heuristic would just be only granting notification prompt permission after you’ve installed the PWA to your Home Screen. That shows clear interest by the user in a longer-term relationship with the app, and they could grant other expanded prompt permissions based on that also.

rabuse 5y ago
This will probably be the way it's handled honestly. I think it's the best option.
- tata71 5y ago
  how it is handled, on modern devices, for years.
The_rationalist 5y ago
Most users never add a shortcut to the home screen and yet use plenty of web apps.
- coder543 5y ago
  Apple could certainly do more to help people understand that they can install web apps to their home screen. Right now, it is an option that few users are aware of, buried in the menus as it is, and even fewer think about it. When a related app is available in the App Store, Apple will show a big banner at the top of the web page encouraging you to install it... but they won't do anything for a PWA. I think requiring "installation" of a PWA is a great way to balance the concerns people have about getting spammed with requests to spam you with notifications you don't want... but I also wish Apple would support PWAs better in general, so I can see it both ways.

kitsunesoba 5y ago

I would find this type of differentiation useful as well. “Plain” sites are generally faster to skim through for what I’m looking for, (no gauntlet of spinning loading wheels and dialogs or JS gumming up functions like Find in Page) so it would be nice to be able to prioritize those in search results. One way to do this would be for the crawler to compare the content of JS-enabled and JS-disabled states and if they differ dramatically, the web destination gets tossed in the “web app” bucket.

riskable 5y ago

Hate to break this to you but even a website that consists of nothing but HTML (no CSS/JS) is still an "app". It's still being executed in the runtime environment of your browser when you load it. Just because the website chose to limit it's use of the features to just one (HTML) doesn't mean it's not an app (when executed in a web browser). If you read that HTML in a text editor then yeah, that's not an app but if you're reading it in a web browser you're "running it".