Linking in Apps

• July 26th, 2011
• send to twitter
• found in tech and gadgets,
  user experience and interface design,
  web and apps
• tagged with
  app, magazine

I don’t intend to use this post to make a case for either side in the imaginary debate between web vs. apps, but one point in The Case Against Apps (and for the Web) deserves addressing:

As a web enthusiast, the lack of URLs for apps and the information they contain is my biggest complaint against the app marketplace.

Suppose I read the center article in the “timeline” interface … and then wanted to share it with a friend or among my social network. There is really no good way to do so; the article itself doesn’t have a specific address of its own, nor does the issue as a whole.

While this point is absolutely true, the author’s “biggest complaint” against apps is a straw man. This is true of many current apps, but not a requirement of apps. This problem could be addressed in any number of ways, such as simply mapping app articles to their online equivalent. It is my understanding that this is how The Daily works.

You probably have experience with this frustrating work-around:

Being the savvy and resourceful web user that I am, I went to WIRED.com, found the article I liked, and sent a link to that URL—the web version—to my friend. Just a second or two later, after clicking “Send,” I thought, Why didn’t I just start here in the first place?

There’s no need to throw away the app model just because their publishers haven’t addressed this problem. Let’s hope they do soon.