Modern browsers allow web apps to have their own place on your taskbar, function as default applications, and even run offline and in the background.
Break Web Apps Out of the Browser
Web apps normally live in the browser, mixed in with other websites you’re viewing and confined to a single browser icon on your taskbar. Chrome and Internet Explorer allow you to create dedicated windows for your web applications, giving them their own separate windows and taskbar icons. Mozilla Firefox used to have this feature through various extensions, but they have been discontinued.
Google Chrome
Step 1: Navigate to the web application. Example: mail.google.com
Step 2: Click the menu button, point to Tools, and select Create application shortcuts.
Step 3: Tell Chrome to pin the web app to the taskbar. You can also have Chrome create desktop and start menu shortcuts for your applications if you prefer to launch them from the desktop or Start menu.
You will then be able to launch the web app from a taskbar icon, switching between open web apps like you would desktop programs. The separate window won't have any address bar or navigation buttons, leaving more room for the web app itself.