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One of the things I do like about Google Chrome is that you can select any web application and create a short cut to in on your desktop that will run the application in it's own window, but I don't particularly like Chrome because it is still marked as BETA and I have experience some unexpected behavior whilst using it. Enter Prism, there is no use me trying to describe it to you so this is taken from Ubuntu Software Centre:

"Prism, previously called WebRunner, is a simple XULRunner based browser that hosts web applications without the normal web browser user interface. It is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB)."

Basically, it will allow you to create shortcuts on your desktop for your favorite web applications to run in their own windows and (sort of) appear as a desktop application. A good web application makes most, if not all, of the browsers user interface redundant. So why waste precious screen real estate stuff you don't need? So to get started, install Prism:

sudo apt-get install prism

This will install Prism, you probably already knew that. Next start Prism from the menu Applications>Internet>Prism Enter the URL of the application (for example http://mail.google.com) and under Create Shortcuts check Desktop. Click OK and you will have a shortcut ready to start on your web browser. That's it really. I am running Google Mail, Facebook, Hootsuite and they are all running brilliantly. If you want an easier, Google Chrome like way of adding Prism shortcuts you can install the Firefox plugin. This is not necessarily limited to being an Ubuntu tip, it is just my primary operating system.