Google Gears was a plugin for modern browsers that gave developers a great way to bring their web applications offline. An example of this would be offline support in Gmail — where you would be able to basically use the service regardless of your internet connection status. Unfortunately, this is the end of the road for the feature.
Pulling the plug, is the responsible thing for Google to do, though it’s not going to be popular. Browsers are natively beginning to support new web standards, like HTML5, that basically make Google Gears functionality extraneous. Keeping such a product alive simply adds unnecessary fragmentation.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1732 |
It's a bit sensationalist to say that Google is leaving developers stranded, when Google has said said that it will:
- Continue to support existing supported versions of IE and Firefox
- Add support for Firefox 3.6
- Make a transition to HTML 5 feasible
In the long term, moving to HTML 5 is in the best interests of most people who are currently using Gears. |
