The web industry loves coining new terms. Sometimes a term sits around for a while and then, for some reason, find traction and pick up steam. This is happening with the term “web app”. But what is a web app? Does it even exist? What makes it different from a website? From some light research many seem to make a distinction between something where users search for and consume information and something that is driven by users and user generated content (i.e. twitter), the latter being a web app. Note: there is a lot of gray area in between and, in some communities, it doesn’t seem anyone can agree on what defines each.
Do these terms have any real purpose? I’m not entirely sure, but some suggest that it serves the hiring industry, especially when talking about developers. Since it’s assumed that web apps are more interactive and more complex, employers may seek developers with “web app” on their resume. I’m not sure how true this is, if at all.
I like the term website over web app for all (or most) online situations for a few reasons. An application, in general computer terminology, means software you install and and launch on your computer and/or device like a smartphone or tablet. Website is a good term since it separates itself from an application; it basically means a place you visit on the internet using a web browser (which is itself an application). The word site is appropriate, which is defined as a place or location, in the case of the web a URL is the location of a website. An application does not have a URL but is rather installed on your operating system (OS) (although technically it has a location where it’s installed to, but it’s more abstract than a URL).
Apple, with the advent of the App Store, have set an understanding of the word app to mean something that you download, install, and launch from your device. I asked a couple people if they knew what a web app was, a 24 y/o female responded “like Flipboard?”. I asked her what her thought process was, she responded “because you can use the same app you have on your phone on the internet, or can you only have an app but not on [the] web?”. While she sort of had a concept of what an “app” is, she still tied it to her phone. A woman in her 50’s simply did not know what I meant by web app.
I also asked someone if they thought facebook and youtube were web apps or websites to which they promptly replied “websites”. This is by no means scientific data, but when I look at these answers with a lack of agreement in the web community on what defines a web app I can’t help but feel that “web app” is not a great term.
Wikipedia introduces a web app (web-based application) as “any application that uses a web browser as a client”. While Wikipedia may semantically contradict my thoughts, that’s still a pretty broad term and the question remains: does the term serve a purpose? I think it mostly just confuses non-technical users. There are a few examples that make the most sense to be labeled web app: email, game, calendar, chat, maybe a couple more. But these could (or are already) known as web mail, web game, web calendar, web chat and still make as much or more sense than web app.
