When I mentioned my attempt to reduce dependency on the browser, Fluid hadn’t yet been created.

Fluid turns web pages into desktop applications, or “Site Specific Browsers.”

Rather than having multiple browser tabs open for each web app in use, Fluid isolates each web page by creating a separate application and process for it.

The benefits are as follows:

• Avoid browser crashes: one web app crashing won’t affect others.
• Desktop response: each web app can take advantage of desktop features, like Command+Tab to switch applications, or Dock presence.

Fluid’s tag line brings it all home:

Your web browser is for web browsing.

This is absolutely right. But over the last decade, web apps have become more prevalent, causing us to load each app in a single browser, which causes a poor user experience.

Using Fluid

Using Fluid is very easy. All you need is the URL of the web app you wish to convert to a desktop app.

Fluid then creates a separate OS X application, available for launching any time.

I have begun using Fluid regularly, but I have yet to determine if it actually increases my productivity.