
Google to release Google Gears on Thursday - take applications beyond the web and challenge Microsoft on desktop - nickb
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/51c32f3c-0efc-11dc-b444-000b5df10621.html
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nickb
Here is the main site: <http://gears.google.com/>

and here is the dev site with full list of APIs!

<http://code.google.com/apis/gears/>

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amichail
So how much effort is it to duplicate much of your database functionality on
the client-side? How easy is it to maintain afterwards along with the main db
code?

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wmorein
Do you get events when you go online/offline? I don't see that in the docs but
it is a key piece of what Firefox 3 promises for offline support.

This seems to work a little differently than Firefox. Am I right in thinking
that you are supposed to always go at the local cache and then just synch that
as needed?

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staunch
Most of the time you would have to ask your users to download Google Gears
before using your offline version. That doesn't seem significantly better than
asking them to download your own extension or desktop application.

Apollo is in a much better position given that Adobe has a backdoor to
installing software on almost every computer in the world. They can make
Apollo ubiquitous almost overnight.

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davidw
Yes, but there is a positive feedback loop. Once someone downloads the thing
for any reason, they have access to more applications.

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staunch
Gears' positive feedback loop may, after years, possibly lead to wide-spread
adoption but Apollo will be definitely ubiquitous in a very short span of
time.

I think this is an interesting move for Google and maybe I'm missing
something, but so far it doesn't look like it has a prayer.

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juwo
Notice, that Apollo is in _alpha_

The problem is, it is so new, that I dont know if it has overcome the problems
Java Web Start has. From the adobe site: "What are some of the features that
are not included in the Apollo alpha? Below is a partial list of features
planned for Apollo 1.0, which are not implemented yet in the Apollo alpha:

PDF support Online/offline APIs "

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staunch
I don't need PDFs for anything. Why is that an important feature?

The only thing that really matters to me is storing lots of data on the
client. Apollo already has a "Full file I/O API". What's missing for me is a
Linux version so I can use it on my laptop, where I need it most. Adobe sucks
for lagging Linux versions.

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juwo
YC merges lines = bug. I think that was

1) PDF support

2) Online/offline APIs

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lupin_sansei
There's some ways to get megs of storage on the client using Flash and other
things (<http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2007/01/ajax-performance-
local-storage.html)> to store a few megs of content locally. I wonder why they
didn't go with that, in order to avoid the plugin?

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juwo
wow! great!

But I wonder if they will run into the problems Java Web Start has.

