SSBs on Windows and the Mac

SSBs (or site-specific browsers) have been gaining a bit of popularity in the last couple of years. Basically "browsers-within-apps", they provide an easy way to access your favorite web sites from your desktop, complete with their own dock/taskbar icons, Application icons, and for many websites, even real-time update notifications.

To make SSBs, you have several options, most notable are Prism, and the popular Fluid.

SSBs with Fluid

If you are a Mac user, you have several options when it comes to creating/using SSBs. But the preferred way is through Fluid. Fluid app can easily create SSBs for websites, and you can even provide your own icon for the app. On my Mac machine, I use it with Flowdock and Gmail. It has a dock icon that displays the number of updates on the site, and it also notifies you via Growl, so you won't have to download a notifier app again.

To make an SSB with Fluid, download the Fluid app (from their site). Once downloaded, run the app, and give it the details of the site you want to make an SSB with:

Here I'm making an SSB for Flowdock. You can choose a custom icon to use with the app, but if not, it will default to the site's icon. Click 'Create' when you're done.

Once you are done, it adds a new app in your Applications folder, complete with the custom icon.


You can even pin it to the dock, like a normal app, and make it run on log-in. It even has support for Growl notifications, so if you receive messages/updates:

You get them. Real time. Try it out now; it takes just seconds to set up.

SSBs with Prism

Another option for Mac users, and the ONLY option (IMHO) for Windows users, is Prism from Mozilla. If you use Windows, this has everything you need - it can create a Quick Launch icon, a Desktop icon, a Taskbar item, and it can display notifications. The notifications aren't as pretty as Fluid (Fluid uses Growl; Windows doesn't have Growl), but I heard some people have had success with using Yip and Growl for Windows or Snarl with it.

To make SSBs with Prism, the easiest would be to download the Prism application or the Firefox plugin (I prefer the plugin over the app, as I already have Firefox).
Once you install the Firefox plugin (get it here), navigate to the website you wish to make an SSB with (using Firefox, of course), and go to Tools -> Convert Website to Application. A dialog box will pop-up:


Just select the options you prefer. Again, I created one for Flowdock, which is a nice little web app we use in our company to collaborate. You should check them out.

Once you have the SSB, just start it up from whichever icon you created. In my case, it created a Quick Launch icon:

If you enabled the notifications, you'd get cool little update boxes like this whenever you get updates from the site:


Imagine if you create SSBs with all the web services you use. You can even create one for RSS feeds. Or Meebo for chats. Or Google Reader. Or even Google Wave. You won't ever have to download web clients again.