Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Site-Specific Browser Examples from TidBITS Sponsor Coherence X Adam Engst We've picked up a new TidBITS sponsor for the next few issues: BZG, makers of the site-specific browser app [1]Coherence X. A site-specific browser (SSB) lets you effectively turn any website into a standalone app that appears in your Dock and works almost like a native Mac app. (BZG also makes [2]Unite, another site-specific browser app that relies on WebKit instead of the Chromium engine underneath Coherence, and [3]Aerate, a lossless image compression utility.) I've relied on Coherence X for the past few years because it offers the best combination of features for my heavy use of Google Docs (see '[4]The Best Mac Site-Specific Browser for Google Docs,' 18 June 2021). My use of Coherence X beyond Google Docs is largely limited to another SSB that brings together tabs for iStock Photo, Unsplash, Pexels, and other sites I use to find royalty-free images for [5]TidBITS Content Network articles. I've tried to turn a few other sites into site-specific browsers'including TidBITS and TidBITS Talk'but it hasn't stuck. Upon reflection, SSBs work best for me if the site has a single unified function'just like an app. In fact, immediately after typing those words, I made a tabbed SSB for Mastodon's Web client (a tabbed SSB ensures that I can follow links within the app). If it looks a lot like Brave, that's the point. However, when my activity is more general'I do many different things on my various TidBITS sites'I haven't been able to break free from the default browser mindset, even though I'd like to. Every day, I end up with a silly number of tabs open to TidBITS articles, TidBITS Talk posts, WordPress admin pages, and more, and they clutter up my browser terribly. Once I made the acquaintance of BZG's Binyamin Goldman, I asked him if he had any case studies from his users that might help me'and perhaps you'glean inspiration from how others use site-specific browsers. He did, and I'd like to share ideas I've distilled from them about how you might improve your productivity by turning a website into an app with Coherence X or another site-specific browser. Encapsulating Web Apps Unsurprisingly, the most common case studies revolved around encapsulating a highly focused website into an SSB that acts like a native app. David Landes is an enthusiastic Coherence X user who regularly works with SSBs, and he provided these examples: * He relies on the free [6]Wave accounting package and appreciates how turning it into an app lets him focus on financial work without being distracted by other tabs. * Breaking [7]Netflix out into a standalone app 'just feels right,' David said, and although he has another SSB for [8]YouTube, he doesn't use it as much. I wonder if that's because YouTube is something you're more likely to use opportunistically ('look, a cat video!'), rather than intentionally ('time to watch The Crown'). * Since the start of the pandemic, David's company has used the [9]Whova event management platform for online and in-person conferences. The administration interface is Web-based, and he finds having it in an SSB makes for a smoother experience than letting it get mixed up with the rest of his browser tabs. * For online training, he uses a white-label version of the cloud-based [10]TalentLMS and prefers keeping it separate from his main browser. He goes so far as to create a separate SSB for each training to keep them distinct. David said the big win of creating an SSB is that he can interact with it as though it were a native app. In particular, switching between apps via the Dock and Command-Tab is more natural than hunting through browser tabs. He also tracks his time using the Mac app [11]Timing, which automatically records how long he uses each app. By creating multiple apps for the different trainings he delivers, he can more easily associate his activity with particular clients and projects. Manage Multiple Accounts Another common thread I encountered among the case studies was using Coherence X to create multiple SSBs for the same site, each logged into a different account. Using multiple browsers for different accounts is surprisingly useful and powerful. (The alternative of using private-browsing windows is much more limited and hard to manage.) For instance, a coach friend was having a hard time juggling separate [12]MileSplit accounts, one for his school cross-country team and another for his club running team. The problem was exacerbated by the requirement that he use a Chromebook for his school-related work. This left him under the impression he could have only one browser at a time. (It's possible to [13]install a Linux or Android browser in ChromeOS, but far from obvious.) He was ecstatic once I pointed out that, on his Mac, he could log into one account in Safari and another in Chrome'he immediately did that for both MileSplit and Gmail, where he was most familiar with the Web interface. Using Coherence X for multiple logins is a little geekier but more, well, coherent because you can name each SSB appropriately. For instance, Haniel Massoud trains people on an Internet-based real-estate package. He uses one Coherence SSB that's logged into his account and another that's logged into the client's account. That way, when he's teaching a real-estate agent how to use the system, he can use his fully configured account as a reference while teaching from the agent's account. Similarly, Russel Stolins of the [14]Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico creates multiple Coherence SSBs for the [15]Canvas learning management system used by the campus. Most of what he does is in a Production SSB, but he and his team also have a Test SSB that they use for checking new configurations and procedures. Online Gaming I don't play enough games to have thought of this last use case. Some people create SSBs for online games so they can focus on the game without mixing it with work or other projects. In a case of playing your own dog food, [16]Daniel Murray develops browser-based games like [17]Ozwomp Online and then plays them in standalone apps using Coherence X SSBs. I don't have a sense of how common it is for TidBITS readers to play online games, but if there's one you enjoy and find that it feels wrong to mix it in with all your other browser bookmarks and tabs, give an SSB a try. References Visible links 1. https://www.bzgapps.com/tidbits 2. https://www.bzgapps.com/unite 3. https://www.bzgapps.com/aerate 4. https://tidbits.com/2021/06/18/the-best-mac-site-specific-browser-for-google-docs/ 5. https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/ 6. https://www.waveapps.com/ 7. https://www.netflix.com/ 8. https://www.youtube.com/ 9. https://whova.com/ 10. https://www.talentlms.com/ 11. https://timingapp.com/ 12. https://www.milesplit.com/ 13. https://www.howtogeek.com/777839/can-you-use-other-browsers-on-a-chromebook/ 14. https://iaia.edu/ 15. https://www.instructure.com/canvas 16. https://loom.cafe/ 17. https://ozwomp.online/ Hidden links: 18. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2023/02/Coherence-X.png 19. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2023/02/Mastodon-SSB.png 20. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2023/02/Ozwomp-Online.png .