Today Google released Google Gears - and while it sounds neat…
Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:
- Store and serve application resources locally
- Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
- Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness
Who is ‘offline’ any more? I’ve got a 24×7 connection at home. I hope on my motorcycle and 30 minutes later I’m at work where again I have 24×7 connectivity.
How many people are ‘offline’ for any significant time these days? I can maybe see people using something like this traveling - or possible if you commute via a train?
Google Gears looks pretty neat even though I don’t have a need for it - especially with the integrated SQLite database. It will be interesting to see if Apollo will have something similar. Nice to see they support Linux as well! 
Update (5/31): Mike Chambers spills that beans that Apollo will support SQLite as well!
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4 Comments
My biggest use case (personal) right now is reading my RSS feeds when I’m on an airplane, which is quite often these days. It makes a great fit with Google Reader.
agreed, I was on the plane home from the Sydney developer day (where it was announced!) reading my feeds. It was a really nice way to kill an hour!
Everyone seems to be talking about the offline potential, but I think there can be more to it. A stronger selling point to me is the possibility of quelling privacy concerns by using the embedded database to store personal data. Your application has access to it, but users are given peace of mind knowing that their data remains “in house”.
I wrote a bit about it at http://musetracks.instantspot......plications
On some level I agree that offline by itself has a limited use-case - especially long term.
What I think is significant for Apollo is the additional native integration. Drag-and-drop to-and-from the application and/or desktop. Custom window chrome. Modal windows. Native menu bars (i.e. at top on Mac, and in the window on Windows). Application specific extensions/file types. Fully configurable context menus… With Apollo we’re talking about a lot more than just offline, but really about extending web applications to the desktop.