So over on Twitter there has been a little bit of discussion between Bryan, Anton and myself about the rash of custom scrollbars that have popped up on websites lately that leverage some new webkit functionality.

Anton brought up that we as a web community had decided that styling browser chrome elements was bad, and he is right we did come to that decision many, many years ago.

That got me to thinking

Have we come far enough with our technology for the web that we need to rethink this position. Or rather, look at the issue from another angle. On an Apple computer the UI toolkit for web based applications and desktop applications is exactly the same.

If you drop in a select box in a desktop app, and one in a web app they are identical. This is true across the board with few exceptions. With this in mind, why is it that we don't cry foul when a developer of a desktop application creates custom buttons, or scrollbars?

I mean the UI elements are the same in both areas, desktop and web, so if it is good for one, shouldn't it be good for the other?

How about an example

As an example of a mac app that is quite lovely and well designed we have LIttle Snapper.

It's a great app, a great design and uses custom scrollbars, because it harmonizes better with the design of the window. Is this okay? From what evidence I can gather no one has condemned them for use of non-standard window UI elements, and why would they?

It is obvious what the scrollbar is, since it still looks like a scrollbar. There are hundreds of well designed apps, with great usability that contain custom form and window elements. This begs the question, "Why do we object when it comes to the browser?"

What are we hoping to build anyway?

Everyday we move closer and closer to our web apps being able to stack up against desktop apps favorably. With the advances in computing power, server capacity and connectivity we are delivering richer and richer experiences, that in my opinion, rival that of a traditional desktop app.

If this line between desktop and web app is blurring so much, I mean now you can even package and deploy web apps as desktop apps, does it stand to reason that we should start employing the same techniques to our web apps that we have been implementing in our desktop apps for years?

My gut feeling is that yes we should. If you are using a webkit based browser, you will see the custom scrollbars I have applied to the site. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has been using a web browser for more than 2 weeks will not recognize them for what they are and use them accordingly.

This is really an open ended issue since the web, and the apps that run on it, are still evolving. I am not 100% sold on the idea of mucking with the UI elements of the browser, but I am not 100% opposed to it either. I want to experiment and see what best serves my users.

I am really interested in what people who work in our industry today think about this issue. Just stop for a minute and think of the seeming false dichotomy between what we view as acceptable in a desktop app, and what we find acceptable in a web app. Does that really make anymore with the way we are moving?

The comments, and twitter are open. @chrisjdavis