Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spotify - Chrome Web Store

chrome.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 51 posts

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#41

Post by pifflesnort »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #37
pifflesnort wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps a better way to look at it is this- when I have a great job doing web development and see job listings all over the place for other rewarding web roles, where is my incentive to do desktop development- even if it's close to the (much more booming) mobile app space? The web is in no danger of dying or getting less popular any time too soon. Because it would provide a better product for your users, which is t…

I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example. Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden.

> I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example.

What's your point?

> Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden.

Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#42

Post by mrinterweb »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #33
mrinterweb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.

What exactly should they do, disallow all apps that don't use a chrome.* API?

I like the suggestion that lucian1900 made.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#43

Post by bsimpson »

mrinterweb wrote: post #40
earbitscom wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a bunch of functionality that you can do with Chrome apps, such as desktray alerts, background music streaming, etc. Most of the "apps" in the store do not do this and are mostly just links to sites, but there are plenty of things you can do with Chrome as an app that go beyond regular browser capabilities.

Those are features of Chrome and not really an "app". It is not new for web developers to target specific features of a web browser. I have not qualms about calling Chrome apps that can be ran offline apps. Perhaps I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. For Chrome OS, a link that is acting like an app that you can "Alt+Tab" to would play better into the idea of an app than another tab in your Chrome browser…

I think earbitscom is talking about the protected APIs in Chrome. There are APIs that regular web sites get and there are APIs that extensions/packaged apps get (like local file storage). Chrome Web Store is still a weird concept for me, but especially so when most of the 'apps' are, as you mention, fancy bookmarks.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#44

Post by fakeer »

bsimpson wrote: post #5

Isn't this just a bookmark for http://play.spotify.com/ ?

Yes, but then most of those Chrome web apps are!

Extensions however add extra functionalities other than a web page! I never understood all those fancy names and screenshots for the Chrome Web Apps when in the end they are just bookmarks with a big pretty icon!

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#45

Post by ra »

It downloads and installs something, but then clicking on it just send me to the Spotify homepage.

Not the experience I was expecting, Spotify.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#46

Post by mynameisvlad »

pifflesnort wrote: post #41
mynameisvlad wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example. Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden.

> I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example. What's your point? > Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden. Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere.

> What's your point?

It's ugly. It doesn't look nice in the slightest. It doesn't scream to me "Boy, this looks like an awesome user experience. I better try it out!"

> Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere.

Then there is no good user experience for Windows. There goes your UX angle.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#47

Post by pifflesnort »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #46
pifflesnort wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like how you're talking about good user experiences and then use that as an example. What's your point? > Furthermore, that wouldn't as easily transfer to Windows since taskbar notification icons are routinely hidden. Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere.

> What's your point? It's ugly. It doesn't look nice in the slightest. It doesn't scream to me "Boy, this looks like an awesome user experience. I better try it out!" > Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere. Then there is no good user experience for Windows. There goes you…

> It's ugly. It doesn't look nice in the slightest. It doesn't scream to me "Boy, this looks like an awesome user experience. I better try it out!"

Why is it ugly? What, specifically is wrong with the UX?

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#48

Post by lucid00 »

mrinterweb wrote: post #40
earbitscom wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a bunch of functionality that you can do with Chrome apps, such as desktray alerts, background music streaming, etc. Most of the "apps" in the store do not do this and are mostly just links to sites, but there are plenty of things you can do with Chrome as an app that go beyond regular browser capabilities.

Those are features of Chrome and not really an "app". It is not new for web developers to target specific features of a web browser. I have not qualms about calling Chrome apps that can be ran offline apps. Perhaps I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. For Chrome OS, a link that is acting like an app that you can "Alt+Tab" to would play better into the idea of an app than another tab in your Chrome browser…

Some Chrome apps aren't just a few specific browser features though, they're literally full packages that you download that have the ability to go through your files, run native code, access to bluetooth, USB, the ability to embed a WebView (like with Android), access to everything extensions can do and more.

Even some of the "bookmarks" add extra functionality to a site that wouldn't have been able to be granted otherwise, like unlimited storage, access to the clipboard and the ability to run in the background.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#49

Post by lucid00 »

myko wrote: post #11
therofler wrote: post #8

Why have Spotify decided to make a Chrome web app rather than just making a normal website, such as Grooveshark?

The 'web app' is really just a bookmark for: http://play.spotify.com/ Hopefully they add some other features like storing music locally, which might require more Chrome integration (I don't really know).

They could store music locally using the File System API and Encrypted Media Extensions (to make the labels happy), but seeing as no one has done this before it probably won't happen for a while.

Re: Spotify - Chrome Web Store

#50

Post by mynameisvlad »

pifflesnort wrote: post #47
mynameisvlad wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's your point? It's ugly. It doesn't look nice in the slightest. It doesn't scream to me "Boy, this looks like an awesome user experience. I better try it out!" > Mac OS X isn't Windows. Part of writing native applications is working with established platform conventions and user expectations, not trying to rubber stamp the same thing everywhere. Then there is no good user experience for Windows. There goes you…

> It's ugly. It doesn't look nice in the slightest. It doesn't scream to me "Boy, this looks like an awesome user experience. I better try it out!" Why is it ugly? What, specifically is wrong with the UX?

The UI is non-standard:

- The buttons aren't styled like Cocoa buttons

- The gradient is non-standard

- Why is there so much lime green?

- Why is there a lime green border?

- The images don't look like they scale well, they look blurry and not very well defined, even in the screenshots

It's supposed to be a Mac app but it doesn't use any of the guidelines published by Apple on conformity in the UI. That makes for a horrible user experience, especially when your app is made for the platform which embraces uniformity across its apps. It is not using any UI elements which the user is accustomed to, instead opting for custom-styled everything.

Post reply on HN