We have been thinking about what properties of an HTML application
make it an application rather than a webpage with logic. We have documented our thoughts here:
http://code.google.com/chrome/apps/articles/thinking_in_web_apps.html
(Thinking in Apps). This is only the start of our thinking and work on
what hopefully will become a robust guide to patterns in web
application development. Many of the things that define a great web page experience are also
the same things that describe an application experience on the web,
however we think there are some subtle differences, especially around
the use of client side data storage, offline support and user
experience. For example our focus on user experience is key. Applications should
do what they do well, by only concentrating on the task that the user
wants to perform. Combine this with our idea of making better use of
the browser real-estate by laying out your applications differently
and removing extraneous content such as footers, menus and logos plus
(I.e, traditional webpage design); you start to see some compelling
differences. We are keen to hear your thoughts so leave a comment, examples and thoughts.