For God's sake, STOP trying to re-implement my browser's interface with Javascript! I don't want you to "put in the effort" to make my URL bar, back/forward buttons, and tabs work the way they naturally do in my browser; that's what my browser is FOR! Even when the developer does put in the effort, the results are usually _just_ different enough in various subtle ways from the browser's native behviour as to be annoying.

Just build a normal website and let my browser do what it was built to do. The APIs that allow SPAs are great and useful. The Pixlr online photo editor has a good reason to be a SPA, and that works great for it. Your forum/email interface/management API would work better as a normal website.

> Your forum/email interface/management API would work better as a normal website.

Good for you with your fast, always-on internet, I guess. Some consumers have to deal with expensive and unreliable 3G internet (that downgrades to 2G occasionally) - an offline-capable email (or management) SPA is indispensable for them. Sure, you could write 4 native offline apps for MacOS, Windows, iOS and Android but that is a bigger investment than targeting browser standards.

SPA is orthogonal to storage, nor are lightweight web techniques exclusive to it, and often in opposition. Native email clients already exist of course.

Using web API means tabs work even if the developer doesn't put in the effort.