Ever since I joined my current company, i’ve been reluctant to install
private applications. So ive been using meebo.com for all my IM need (except Skype, which i use for office related business) and GMail for private emails. The thing about web apps is that you need to manually check now and then for updates, which of course means loss of productivity.
Enter Fluid, a free web app wrapper for Mac OS X Leopard. Fluid takes any site you throw at it and makes into a native app with all the bells and whistles.
WebApp creators can even use Fluid’s JavaScript API to show Dock Badges, Growl Notifications and create Dock menu items. That means that you will receive notifications even though the app isn’t what you are viewing at the moment – hence, no loss of productivity.