DutchmenSport wrote:
An "App" is nothing more than a dedicated link to a specific Internet site, no matter what device you use to access the internet. "Apps" will navigate the user directly to the specific Web site, are developed in such a way that the Web site's system will determine how to render the display on the device being used, where as a conventional Web site will render the display in full desktop view. If accessing through a mobile device, the desk top presentation will not display the full screen, only what the window of the users device will permit making it necessary for the consumer to move the browser window around to see the Web page. You will not see the entire page at once without sliding it up and down or side to side.
Apps may also direct you to a stripped out version of the full website to accommodate for a small resolution like on an IPhone. Other than this there really is no difference between an App and searching yourself on Google for the full website.
That is not necessarily the case. Websites can be designed to work on the desktop as well as a mobile device, these are called responsive and adaptive based web designs. An app might use the website for its content and might be a "shell" for a website but doesn't have to be (and it's considered a bad practice to do so.). An app can use features of the device that a typical website can not, like your geolocation, camera, local/offline data storage, notifications and etc. Your best bet is to evaluate an app and see if it provides a value to you over their website and if it does, that's great, you have a new tool in your arsenal.
