Google will drop Gears for HTML 5

From InfoWorld: Google will end Gears, an open-source plug-in project it launched two years ago to allow Web applications to function even when a computer isn't connected to the Internet, according to a statement from the company.

Google said that many of the features it has wrapped into Gears are now being incorporated into HTML 5, the latest specification for the Web's mother coding tongue. But the development of HTML 5 is likely not to be completed until 2011 or 2012.

Gears was part of Google's vision to make online Web applications behave more like desktop ones. The idea is that a Web application could be used absent an Internet connection and then sync its data when the PC comes online again.

Components of Gears included a local server and database. Applications that used Gears include Google's Docs and Reader as well as Zoho's online office productivity suite.

However, new incompatibilities with Gears have cropped up. Although it works with Microsoft's Windows, Linux and some Apple Mac OS X versions, it doesn't work with Mac OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard.

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