Google Gears - The Future Is Now

Online or offline - It doesn't matter anymore.

Google Gears has the power to take personal computing to a new level. Like other Google apps, Gears is being released in Beta and will probably stay that way until the Braves are back in the World Series. But it's worth trying now.

What is it? It's software that allows applications to seamlessly work in both online and offline environments. Google Reader is the first application to work with Google Gears. Last night, while I was online, I clicked a button in Reader to go offline. It then downloaded the last 2000 posts in my Reader account. This morning while I was offline, I read the posts just like I was online. Then when I got back online, it synced up the read, unread, and starred items. It's a beautiful thing.

What else works this way? The best example of an ideal app that works this way is Outlook (Microsoft Outlook 2007). I have recently switched to using Outlook 2007 at home. It's been surprising how much better the experience is than using webmail. Once Outlook is started, it downloads mail from all three of my accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, & Hotmail). Then I can use Outlook's great features to manage my mail, calendar, and tasks. When I'm not connected to the net, I can see all my messages and respond to them. When I'm connected again those message are automatically sent. The difference with Gears is that you don't need to buy or download a desktop application.

What's in it for me? As Gears is applied to more and more apps (Google has release an API for it), many commons apps will work this way. Imagine drafting a document online, collaborating with others and then being able to take it offline. Google stores the document and takes care of backup and allows those you choose to view it. You have the convenience of being able to edit the document on a plane or other places without Internet access.

Try Google Gears out with Google Reader, it's a very cool experience to be able to use your Reader while disconnected. And . . . watch for future developments. Microsoft beware!

Comments

[Erik Huddleston]

I constantly struggle with the online/offline issue. I travel a ton,so am always having to deal with getting out of sync or having my data unavailable. Google gears is way cool. Apps are already starting to adopt it. One of the most compelling is RememberTheMilk, which is a task list that integrates to Google Calendar. It has an email inbox and a google gears integration. That's a powerful one/two punch when you are on the go. Like you, I also use outlook 2007 as my productivity tool of choice, while email to webmail syncs great, calendar was a different story. I ended up writing my own app to publish my outlook calendar to Google Calendar http://www.moosesync.com/ Since it works off the send receive settings in Outlook, when I come back online, all my calendar changes are immediately reflected in Google.

[Craig Huggart]

Erik:

Great stuff! I just found out about RememberTheMilk yesterday.

I will have to try out your sync for Google Calendar.

Craig