In this article from Joel on Software, Joel talks about how the easiest parts of the screen to click are the edges, and how putting menu bars at the absolute top of the screen increases usability. Can this principle still be applied to web apps, even though you can't get to the absolute top of the screen due to the browser's chrome, or is it a moot point?
Answer
I'm surprised the article doesn't mention Fitts' Law, which states that the bigger the target is, the easier it is to acquire. (That's only half of the law, but it's the part that interests us here.)
A menu bar may be considered infinitely large if it can be activated by clicking anywhere "above" the screen.
You should read A Quiz Designed to Give You Fitts, by Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, the same person who wrote the article to which Joel alludes. The Macintosh pull-down menu is described in Question 5.
To answer your question, web pages can't use the edge of the screen as a Mac's menu does. So that's not a good reason to put a menu at the top of a web app. (Granted, there may be other good reasons…)
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