Almost everyone knows what an app is. Mobile devices first popularized the app concept, making it a household word. Now there are apps for desktop operating systems, TVs, automobiles, and many other “connected” devices. But just in case, an app is a computer program, one that users use to do something. We, as users, apply the program to a task in some way. The old word application gave way to the shortened nomenclature of app. Apps give your computer, smartphones and other smart devices additional functionality that it didn’t originally come with.

So, how does that apply to a website? Well, as you might surmise, there are apps for them, too! These apps may have different names, like scripts, but at their most basic, these things will add new features that users can access on the website.

One of the best know apps is a blog. Most people don’t think of a blog as an app, they just think of it as part of the website. But a blog can be added on after the fact, or it can stand alone from the main website, and be a sort of sub-website all its own. For example, if you wanted to bring blogging to your website, you might consider adding WordPress to it. While WordPress is mostly thought of these days as powering entire websites, its blogging features can be added on for just the blogging capabilities. But WordPress isn’t the only blog app out there. There’s Open Blog, Nucleus, Movable Type, and our two favorites only because of how they’re named: eggBlog and Nibbleblog.

In addition to blogging, there are web apps for Human Resources, Photo Galleries, Education Course management, and Invoicing. The list of types of web apps, and the differences between those apps are too numerous to list. Some are comparable to public web services, and bring similar functionality, but allow you to manage them. This might be a consideration when issues of confidentiality and ownership are of concern.

If you’re looking for some additional functionality, or wanting to move away from a public service, ask me if there’s a web app that might be right for you.