No More Offline Gmail in Google Chrome

Chrome 12, the upcoming version of Google's browser which is likely to be released today, removes a useful feature: the built-in Gears plugin. While most Google services dropped support for Gears and removed offline access, Gears is still being used in Gmail. Google no longer maintains Gears, which is now legacy software, and focuses on implementing offline support using HTML5.


But why remove Gears support without implementing the features using HTML5 first? Google says that you'll only need to wait for a few weeks or you can still older versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer and mail client such as Thunderbird or Outlook.

"The new Gmail Offline capability is targeted for delivery as a Chrome browser web app this summer. As we move the Gmail Offline capability to a Chrome web app, we will deprecate the Google Gears-based Gmail Offline. This coincides with the version 12 release of the Google Chrome browser which no longer supports Gears. As a result, Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will no longer work with the Chrome browser as of Tuesday May 24, 2011. Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will continue to work in Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox 3.6," explains Google.

It's not the best thing to do after convincing users to switch to Chrome and use Web apps, but it's just a temporary issue. If the HTML5 offline Gmail wasn't ready to be released, removing Gears from Chrome could have been delayed.

{ via François }

Chrome 12 Will Drop Support for Google Gears

While most Chrome users have been upgraded to Chrome 10, Google is fixing the bugs from Chrome 11 and working on Chrome 12. A recent Chromium build made a significant change: Gears is no longer included in Google Chrome.


Gears is a browser plugin released by Google back in 2007, The initial goal was to add support for offline web apps, but the plugin added many other HTML5 features at a time when HTML5 wasn't a priority for most browsers. Google discontinued Gears last year to focus on "bringing all of the Gears capabilities into web standards like HTML5" and to implement them in Google Chrome. Features like geolocation, notifications, web workers, application caches are already available in Google Chrome, so it's probably the right time to stop bundling the Gears plugin.

"With all this now available in HTML5, it's finally time to say goodbye to Gears. There will be no new Gears releases, and newer browsers such as Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 will not be supported. We will also be removing Gears from Chrome in Chrome 12," informs Google.

What's surprising is that important services like Gmail and Google Calendar still use Gears to work offline. Other services like Google Docs and Google Reader dropped offline support last year. Google promised that they will use HTML5 features implemented in browsers like Chrome or Firefox, but that hasn't materialized yet.

Offline Google Calendar, Available for Everyone

After being tested in Google Apps, the offline version of Google Calendar is now available for all Google accounts. To enable it, you should click on "Offline (beta)" in Google Calendar's header, install Gears if you don't already have it, allow Google Gears to store information on your computer and then wait until the data is downloaded.


In the Offline Settings page, you can select the calendars that are available offline (by default, only the main calendar is enabled). "You'll be able to view events scheduled on these calendars the next time you access Calendar offline. Please note that calendars containing web-content events will not display correctly while offline," explains the help page.

Unlike the offline version for Gmail, the offline Google Calendar has many limitations: you need to manually go offline/online, you can't add events, edit the existing events, search your events or change the settings. Another limitation is that Google doesn't download all the events - I noticed a warning: "Your offline calendar only contains events from Feb 4, 2009 to Jun 4, 2009".





The read-only offline version of Google Calendar is only useful to quickly check your agenda when you don't have an Internet connection. For more features, you should check Mozilla Sunbird, a cross-platform tool that can synchronize with Google Calendar using CalDav. Make sure to enable caching if you want to view the events from Google Calendar when you are offline (you still can't edit the events or create new ones).

Options for Caching Attachments in Gmail Offline

Offline Gmail has been updated to version 0.2 and you can now specify a maximum size for the downloaded attachments. If you don't need to access attachments when you're offline, you can disable the download of attachments.

A user of the Gmail Group has a workaround for those who don't have the new version. "It seems to me that for existing users it'll appear only when you disable and then again enable Gmail offline. And you won't have to download your emails again; you can always choose them not to be removed while disabling Gmail offline."


{ Thanks, Steve. }

Offline Google Calendar for Google Apps

Some Google Apps users noticed a new option in Google Calendar: read-only offline access to the calendars using Google Gears. Mark Mathson has screenshots for the new feature, but it's surprising to see that Google Apps users, who usually received the updates later than Google Accounts users, get the offline Calendar earlier.


Google's help page mentions that users can decide which calendars are available offline. "Calendar keeps you on time, even when you're not online. Offline Calendar allows you to access your events through your browser without requiring Internet access. It's perfect for flaky connections or for when you're in between meetings and have no idea where you're supposed to be next. Note that while offline, Calendar will be read-only - it will not be possible to create, edit, or delete events."

It's interesting that the version briefly available in October 2007 allowed you to "view and edit the next 3 months of your Google Calendar when you're not connected to the Internet". Google decided that it's important to synchronize all the events and that editing the events is too difficult to implement reliably.

{ Thanks, Mark Mathson and Tom Rodman. }

10 Good Things About Offline Gmail

Gmail's offline version is a surprisingly solid alternative to desktop mail clients. Despite the shortcomings of an initial release (attachments can't be added to messages composed offline, you can't customize which messages are downloaded, the contact manager is not available offline), there are many good things about the offline Gmail:

1. You can easily create proper shortcuts for Gmail from the settings page.


2. Now that's available offline, Gmail can truly become an application rendered by Chrome.

3. Some of the attachments are available offline and you can copy the files from Google Gears' cache.

4. Even if your Internet connection goes down, you can continue to read your messages and post replies, so you don't have to until the connection goes back up.

5. Gmail finally becomes usable if you have a slow or unreliable network connection. Enable the "flaky connection mode" and Gmail will cache your messages. "In flaky connection mode, you access the mail that's stored locally on your computer, regardless of your connection status. This makes it much faster to read and send mail, which is nice when you're on a slow or flaky connection. Your account will continue to sync in the background when it's able to do so, with no disruption to your experience."

6. Even if you have a fast Internet connection, it's faster to load data from your computer than from Google's servers, so the "flaky connection mode" is a good way to speed up Gmail.

7. Most Gmail features work even when you are offline, including themes, Gmail Labs and keyboard shortcuts.

8. You can cache messages for more than one account and switch between them.

9. The change of the online/offline status is seamless and you don't have to manually sync data.

10. This is the best implementation of an offline Google app.

Offline Gmail

Adding offline support for Google services turned out to be a difficult task: even if Gears-enabled versions of Google Calendar and Gmail have been tested for more than a year, offline Gmail will be available starting from today in Gmail Labs.


What's the point of creating an offline version of Gmail when you can use mail clients like Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook? You don't need to install additional software other than Google Gears and you can continue to use Gmail's familiar interface.

Gmail's blog explains how this feature works and which Gmail features are available offline:

"Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection."


"And if you're on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you're "borrowing" your neighbor's wireless), you can choose to use "flaky connection mode," which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background."


Since this is still an experimental feature, Google chose to come up with an algorithm that decides which messages are cached locally and you can't set how many messages are downloaded.

We try to download your most recent conversations along with any conversations that seem to be important (regardless of their age). We also try not to download uninteresting conversations. This process is done heuristically and as with any heuristic can and will miss things. We'll continue to tune things up, but more importantly, we'll eventually provide a UI that will allow you to change the settings. Here's a sketch of how these messages are selected:

* Synchronization is based on the date of conversations. The system estimates a period of time to cover (at least 1 week in length) that results in approximately 10,000 messages being downloaded. For an average user, this means Gmail will end up downloading several years of mail.

* Additionally, we'll download any conversation marked with a label that contains less than 200 conversations, has at least one conversation that has been received in the last 30 days and also has at least one conversation that's outside the estimated time period. For many users, this list of labels will include Starred and Drafts.

* Finally, the system determines a list of labels to exclude conversations from being downloaded. For example, Trash and Spam are always in this list, along with any label that contains mostly unread conversations (unread count greater than 99%). So, we won't download a conversation if it contains only labels in this list. A typical Trashed message will not be downloaded, but a Trashed message that contains the label "alpha" will.

Among the most significant limitations of the offline versions: you can't add attachments to your messages, the contact manager is not accessible, the search results are limited to the local cache.


How to get this feature?

Offline Gmail will be slowly rolled out this week to the English interface of Gmail. Here's how to enable the feature:

1. Change the language of your Gmail interface to English
2. Make sure you use a browser supported by Gmail Labs and Gears: Internet Explorer 7.0+, Firefox 2.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Google Chrome. You can't use Gmail Labs in Internet Explorer 6.
3. Wait until this feature is added to your account. When you see "Offline Gmail" in Gmail Labs, enable the feature, save the changes and click on the "Offline" link that will be displayed next to your username.

Toolbar, Gears, Chrome

Launched in December 2000, Google Toolbar started as a way to add features that were missing from Internet Explorer. Users had to visit Google's homepage to perform a search and the toolbar improved the experience by adding a search box to the browser. In the next versions, the toolbar added query suggestions, a pop-up blocker, a spell checker and other features that later became part of most modern browsers.

In May 2007, Google launched a plug-in that made browsers more powerful by integrating advanced features like offline storage, local database, location services. Google Gears added invisible features that allowed web applications to become more responsive and to work even offline.

The trouble with Google Toolbar and Gears was that users had to install them separately, the browser integration wasn't very smooth and there were many other things that could improve web browsing, but can't be added using a plug-in. A better JavaScript engine, a more reliable browser that crashed less, a fast and simple interface - it's hard to make all these things happen without building a new browser. If Google Toolbar made it easier to search using Google, Chrome encourages to use the web more because the browser loads instantly, you can find web pages faster and you spend less time waiting for pages to load.

A press release from 2000 explained that "Google exists to provide the world's best Internet search experience. Google accomplishes this for millions of users daily by delivering a powerful, fast, and easy way to find the most relevant information available." Google changed the scope of the mission from improving the way you search the web to improving the way you experience the web. A better browser, along with a faster Internet connection, great web applications and an open environment that encourages innovation bring more Internet users and, as a consequence, more Google users.

Gears for Safari

Google posted a link to a beta version of Gears for Safari: http://dl.google.com/gears/current/gears-osx-opt.dmg. The minimum system requirements are: Safari 3.1.1 on Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.3, although Gears is likely to support other WebKit-based browsers in the future.

"This is BETA, it is not an official release, it might break your browser. Chances are it will break your browser. Please proceed with caution," warns Jeremy Moskovich from Google.

If you find bugs, post them at Google Code. The list of issues includes interesting details about the upcoming offline version of Gmail:

"After viewing Install offline access for Google.com Mail, I click Next and the installer window disappears. Is it telling me that initialization is not needed? Hard to say. It appears that I now have an Offline settings tab, so I guess it is initialized."

Hint, hint! If you install Gears for Safari, it would be nice to post some screenshots in the comments. You could use Gears to enable offline access for Google Docs, Google Reader or to speed up the admin interface for WordPress.


{ via Golem. Screenshot from Thomas Stromberg. }

YouTube Uploader Powered by Gears

You can now upload videos larger than 100 MB to YouTube without installing a dedicated software. YouTube started to use Gears to upload videos.

The latest version of Gears introduces some new features that make manipulating large files so much easier.

Gears now makes uploading large and multiple files on the web much easier, giving you the primitives to roll a resumable uploader, which means hopefully we can see custom desktop uploaders go away soon. (...) Another cool new feature is the Blob API. Unlike strings, blobs let you reference arbitrary binary data — a first for JavaScript! Therefore, blobs can more naturally represent things like files and images, and they can be passed around efficiently. (...) We have also extended the Desktop API with a new method, openFiles(), which allows users to select multiple files of a particular content type, and then returns them as blobs for easy uploading or worker processing.

The multi-video uploader is useful if you want to upload more than one video from a single video and if some of your videos have more than 100 MB. "Each video can be up to 10 minutes in length and up to 1GB in size. These videos will be available in My Videos after they have finished processing. It may take 30 minutes or more for extremely large files to appear on your My Videos page."

{ Thanks, Hebbet. }

APIs for Finding Location

Google launched two APIs for finding the location of a user from a web application. The most simple way, which is also the least precise, is to derive some information about location from the IP. Google AJAX API has an object named google.loader.ClientLocation that includes "metro-level granularity properties": country, region, city, low resolution latitude and longitude. This could be useful if you want to customize a web page for a specific country or to prefill information about location. You probably noticed that google.com automatically redirects to the appropriate international domain and that when you create a Google account your country is already selected.

To get a more precise location, you could use the new Geolocation API from Gears 0.4. "The Geolocation module provides the best estimate of the user's position using a number of sources (called location providers). These providers may be onboard (GPS for example) or server-based (a network location provider)." The API includes a method that lets you track the changes and perform an action based on the new location. Unlike the AJAX API, this requires that users have Gears 0.4 installed and they explicitly allow the application to obtain location information. Unfortunately, Gears is only available for Firefox, IE and IE Mobile, but the team promises to extend the availability to other browsers. Gears for Safari will soon be released, so S60 and iPhone support shouldn't be far away. Google Mobile Blog has two examples of sites that already use the Gears API.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has developed a very interesting platform called Fire Eagle which connects the applications that obtain location information to other application that use the information. "The service has two major functions for users—it allows a user to update their location and then gives them full control of how and where they share that location. A user can perform these functions on the central site, but can also update or access their location data using any other authorized 3rd party application - on the web, on a desktop application or on a mobile device."


As more people start to use Internet services on mobile phones and the devices become more capable, location will be used in almost all applications to deliver more relevant information: a social network could displays the friends near you, a photo sharing service could show photos taken near your location, while a shopping search site could find the best price for a professional digital camera in your area. You can already find interesting applications for Symbian S60, iPhone, Android, but they will become really useful when everyone will broadcast the location.

Gmail and Google Calendar to Add Offline Support

It seems that this year Google's most popular web applications will work offline. After Google Reader and Google Docs, two other services will integrate with Gears. Andrew Fogg saw a preview of the integration at Google's offices and found that Gmail and Google Calendar will add offline support in approximately 6 weeks.

In the past months, Google accidentally enabled the option in Google Calendar and some users saw the dialog illustrated below: "To view and edit the next 3 months of your Google Calendar when you're not connected to the Internet, click OK."

Screenshot licensed as Creative Commons by NOTICIAS-TIC.

Andrew also found out that Google will add SyncML support for Gmail contacts next month. He thinks this is "related to the sync that they worked on with Apple for 3G iPhone". SyncML is a standard for data synchronization supported by a lot of companies. "SyncML is most commonly thought of as a method to synchronize contact and calendar information between some type of handheld device and a computer (personal, or network-based service), such as between a mobile phone and a personal computer."

Update: Andrew Fogg deleted the tweets referenced in the post, but I have a screenshot.

Another update (Jan. 2009): Much later than expected, Gmail gets offline supports.

Google Promotes Offline Google Docs

Google promoted on the homepage the offline support for Google Docs: "Get your documents whenever, wherever". If you have the Gears plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox, you can backup your documents, spreadsheets and presentations on your computer and view them offline in your browser. The documents can be edited and the changes are sent to Google's servers when you go back online.

The link from Google's homepage sends you to a page that explains the reason why Offline Google Docs is useful. "Worried about storing documents online because you can't get to them offline? Have no fear. Now Google Docs works offline."


In the near future, Google will add support for editing spreadsheets and presentations offline, but there are some features that will never be available offline without a local converter: exporting documents to DOC, PDF or opening a document from your computer in Google Docs. The documents aren't stored in a format that can be opened by other applications, so Google needs to find a way to sync your documents and convert them to an editable format.

Google Gears Updated for Firefox 3

If you already use Firefox 3 (download links), you noticed that Google Gears was one of the many extensions developed by Google that didn't support the next version of Firefox (Google Toolbar and Google Browser Sync are other notable examples).

Google Gears 0.3, released last week, added support for Firefox 3 and extended the desktop integration by allowing applications to create shortcuts on the desktop or in the start menu. Google Docs is one of the applications that takes advantage of this feature and shows the following dialog when you enable Gears.


Obviously, it's not very difficult to create a desktop shortcut for a web page and you don't need Gears for this, but the small desktop integration is a nice touch. Google Toolbar for Firefox goes further and it lets you open documents from your computer in Google Docs, but the extension is not yet compatible with Firefox 3.


Mozilla Prism is another project that brings web applications closer to the desktop. "Prism, previously known as WebRunner, is a product in development which integrates web applications with the desktop, allowing web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser."

Update: CNet mentions two new features from the next version of Gears: the blob and geolocation. "The blob module lets a Web browser handle a large chunk of data in pieces, for example, uploading a large video bit by bit to better protect against unreliable network connections. The geolocation module gives browsers abilities to use data about where exactly a person using the Web is located, but Google hasn't worked out exactly how to handle the privacy implications of that work."

{ Thanks, Martin and Stephen. }

List of Web Applications That Use Google Gears

After naming Google Gears the most innovative product of 2007, PC World is disappointed that very few important applications use Google's technology. Gears is still an early product, but most of the news articles that mention it talk about making web applications available offline, even if Google Gears is much more than that. An important point from PC World's article is that Google doesn't show a list of applications that use Gears before installing the plug-in, so users don't have too many reasons to try it. Here's a list of some important applications that use Google Gears:

* Google Reader
- feed reader from Google
- the Gears integration was added in May 2007
- it lets you read the most recent 2000 posts offline, without having access to images and enclosures. You can also star posts or tag them.

* Remember the Milk
- task management application
- the second application Gears-enabled, six days after Google Reader
- most of the functionality is available offline. "Not only can you access your lists, but you can add new tasks and notes, edit existing tasks (complete, postpone, prioritise, tag, and change due dates to your heart's content), use your own personal tasks search engine, create new Smart Lists, and more."

* Zoho Writer
- online word processor
- supports Gears since August 2007, with an important update in November and Windows Mobile support since March 2008
- a number of recent documents can be viewed and edited offline

* PassPack
- online password manager
- launch date: September 2007
- "With the Offline Version, you can download your data from your PassPack account, then access and manage it whenever you wish. This is not a read only version, you are free to make changes and save them locally. To synchronize your online and offline accounts, use the backup and restore functions."

* MindMeister
- online mind mapping
- launch date: November 2007
- "The MindMeister Offline Mode allows users to work on their mind maps even when they're offline, i.e. not connected to the Internet. All changes will be saved locally and synchronized back into your MindMeister account the next time you go online," explains a help page.

* Buxfer
- personal finance manager
- the Gears support was added in January 2008 and was extended to Windows Mobile in March
- the application has the option to store the authentication information offline. "You will have the convenience of not needing to login into your financial institution repeatedly, as well as the peace of mind that your private information is secure and completely under your control!"

* Autodesk Labs Project Draw
- create diagrams online
- launch date: January 2008
- the application can run in the offline mode and synch files later when you reconnect

* Google Docs
- online word processor
- experimental launch for a small percent of users - March 2008
- you can view and edit documents offline

* Picasa Web Albums Mobile
- photo sharing service
- offline support for Windows Mobile 6 touchscreen devices, April 2008
- you can view photo albums offline

* Paymo
- time tracker
- Gears-enabled from April 2008
- Google Gears added the "ability to work offline and sync the data with the Paymo server once an internet connection is available"

* MySpace
- social network
- the Gears integration was launched on May 29
- Google Gears allows users to search and sort their messages locally as MySpace considered it was "time consuming and cost-prohibitive to add indexes on the server".

* Wordpress.com
- hosted blogging service
- Gears enabled from July 2008
- "On WordPress.com it is used to store all images and other web page components from the admin area to the user's PC, speeding up access and reducing unnecessary web traffic. The speed increase is most noticeable when Internet is slow or on high latency and makes everybody's blogging experience more enjoyable."

Google Gears, a Software Update for the Web

Google Gears started as an open-source plug-in that enabled web applications to work offline, but its real purpose is to speed up the addition of features to web browsers. Developers are frustrated that it takes too long to create standards and they have to wait until they enter mainstream by being included in web browsers. Brad Neuberg from Google says that it takes 5-8 years for an idea to be included in enough web browsers so that developers can actually use it. "We need a better way to get new features out to the Web. Google Gears is an open-source mechanism for updating the Web", explains Brad the underlying motivation for building Google Gears.

Google's Dion Almaer sees Gears as a "bleeding-edge HTML 5 implementation". "There is a lot in common between Gears and HTML 5. Both are moving the Web forward, something that we really need to accelerate. Both have APIs to make the Web do new tricks. However HTML 5 is a specification, and Gears is an implementation." Some pieces from Google Gears could even become standards and it's likely that they'll be added to web browsers faster.

Offline Google Docs

{ Screenshot licensed as Creative Commons by TJ Blog. More screenshots. }

Google Docs will slowly roll out an option to view and edit documents offline using Google Gears. Unlike the Google Reader implementation, Google Gears will automatically detect when you're offline and will take care of constantly downloading the changes so that your documents are available locally.

When you are offline, you can access your documents by simply going to docs.google.com or by clicking on a desktop shortcut. The documents can be edited offline and Google will try to solve the conflicts if your collaborators edited the documents while you were offline. "In the case where your edits conflict with another collaborator's, you will see [a message]. If you'd like to keep your changes, you have the option of copying them into the document. Also, you can click Show differences to compare different revisions and revert to the one you want," explains Google.

Google Docs blog lists some potential use cases. "It's all pretty seamless: I don't have to remember to save my documents locally before packing my laptop for a trip. I don't have to remember to save my changes as soon as I get back online. And I don't have to switch applications based on network connectivity. With the extra peace of mind, I can more fully rely on this tool for my important documents."

Hopefully you're luckier than me and you see an "Offline" like at the top of Google Docs' homepage. If you get access to the offline Google Docs, share screenshots and opinions in the comments. Don't forget that when you are offline, your documents are available by simply visiting docs.google.com and without entering your Google password. For now, spreadsheets and presentations aren't accessible offline.



Update: Google Docs offline guide.

Google Gears Wants to Upgrade the Web

"A gear is a component within a transmission device that transmits rotational force to another gear or device." (Wikipedia)


Most people think that Google Gears is a way to make web applications work offline, but it's much more than. Google Gears addresses many limitations from today's browsers and wants to make the browsers more powerful.

Here's a list of features that could be included in the next releases, but you can find more in Google Gears wiki:

* image manipulation - "a module to give Javascript a way to resize, crop and compose images together on the client side. This will allow, for example, images to be resized into a web-friendly format before being uploaded to a photo album. Another use is for composition of images together as an efficient alternative to server-side composition or CSS layering. Yet another use is for basic photo editing - a user can edit a photo with instantly applied changes before uploading it to the server."

* location - "an abstraction for the various LBS APIs that currently exist on mobile platforms (GPS-based, network/cellid-based). The API consists of the Location class, which encapsulates various location attributes (latitude, longitude, etc), and also provides the means to query the platform for a location fix." This suggests that Google Gears will be available for some mobile phones.

* desktop shortcuts for web applications that lets you click on an icon from your desktop and open the "application" in your browser. This could make the transition from the desktop to the browser easier, even if some people could find it confusing. Mozilla Prism is a similar initiative.

Google's Dion Almaer describes Gears in a very plastic way. "We get to drive a few makes of cars (browsers) on the (information) highway. When we want new features, we have to wait for a new model to come out, and recently it feels like Cuba. The top selling car is a 1950’s Chevy. As drivers that are passionate about the driving experience, the Gears team is trying give everyone a foundation to replace the engine, even as you drive."

Google Gears is still in an early phase of development and it could include many other features, but it will be interesting to see how Google intends to push its adoption. The Gears-enabled services could ask the users if they want offline access or other fancy features, Google could also include it in the toolbar or distribute it with popular applications from third-parties. For now, Google Reader, Remember the Milk and Zoho Writer are the most important applications that use Gears, but next year most Google services will use Gears.

Read Wikipedia Articles Offline

Ajaxian talks about an interesting way to use Google Gears for sites that don't necessarily integrate with Google's toolkit for offline applications: inject code using Greasemonkey. An article shows how you can save a number of Wikipedia articles for offline use, without depending on your browser's cache.

Sites with a lot of static information -- Wikipedia, any API documentation, web-based email -- would be great to be able to use when no internet connection is available. But what if you're a user that always has an internet connection? Then adding Gears to a site doesn't do much, right? Wrong. Imagine your favorite website is now stored on your computer, and it syncs whenever there's altered content. Whenever you look at the site, your browser is grabbing everything straight from your hard drive. Did you just make a search for your best friend on Facebook? Don't wait 5 seconds the next time that search runs, have the results immediately! Meanwhile, save the webmasters' precious bandwidth/server power!

Here's the Greasemonkey script for Wikipedia (requires Firefox + Gresemonkey + Gears). For each Wikipedia article you want to save, click on "cache page" and the script will save the text and the images. It would be nice to make it work with any site.

Offline Blogger

To anticipate an email from Google, I must say that Blogger didn't launch a version that works offline, so the tool described in this post is only an example of what you can do using the recently-launched Blogger JavaScript library. The new library lets you create applications that interact with the account of a Blogger user: retrieve his blogs, edit existing posts, or create new posts. Basically, you can create a different Blogger editor by only writing JavaScript code.

Blog.gears is an example of Blogger editor that uses Google Gears to make it work offline. You're able to create blog posts and edit one of the recent posts even if you don't have an Internet connection. As soon as you go back online, Blog.gears synchronizes the data stored offline with the data from Blogger's servers. There's nothing fancy about the editor (no rich-text editor, you can't add images or preview the post), but it's a cool preview of what we can expect from a new version of Blogger that will be offline-enabled.

A more advanced blog editor that works offline and it's not restricted to Blogger is Windows Live Writer. "Writer synchronizes drafts on your blog with changes you make when you're offline, so you don't have to worry about reconciling different versions."