Google Gears is installed locally on the user’s machine and integrates with your web browser, you then grant access to web sites wishing you use Gears. Once this has been done the online application can synchronize data locally to work with offline while also enabling the application to work and be fuly functional without an active connection, making the transition to offline use of the web site almost seamless since upon connecting to the network at the next oppurtunity any modifications to data made offline will once again be synced online.
Google Reader, Google’s home grown RSS/Atom news reader is the first app to use Gears officialy by Google. And it works quite nicely as a proof of concept. Their are endless possibilities for such a platform as Gears, especially in the enterprise where commutes and travel often leave one without access to the internet, trains, flights and the general to and fro. Wireless networks are at a high penetration in a lot of cities, and yes mobile cellular broadband is starting to become practical, but there will always be a time or place when you are an exile from cyberspace. In these dark times getting to your online applications that you require can be made possible by Google Gears.
The application candidates best suited for adoption are those in the line of collaboration and content managment. And I’m quite sure Google has thought of this too as the Google Docs suite of applications is a prime candidate for Google Gears and I, along with many others eagerly anticipate this reality. One has to think that Google is trampling Mircosoft’s garden with this bold move.
