Some apps like Google Docs require you to install the app for offline usage. I use apps to integrate them into Gnome Shell. I can press super+"gm"+enter to ope

Some apps like Google Docs require you to install the app for offline usage. I use apps to integrate them into Gnome Shell. I can press super+"gm"+enter to open up Gmail, or "cal" for the calendar, etc. There's no reason that you couldn't use this for bookmarks, but I guess Chrome apps allow for larger icons... Despite my usage, I'd agree that it's essentially just an ideological push by Google to convince consumers that the internet is a viable computing platform in its own right. This computing platform - would you believe it - consists largely of Google's own apps (but it doesn't have to).