Google says ‘bye to Gears, hello to HTML5; preps Chrome browser for Apple’s Mac

“To prove Web applications like Gmail and Google Docs could be as sophisticated as desktop apps, Google created its own desktop software a couple years ago — a small utility called Gears. Once it’s installed on a user’s computer, features like offline caching of e-mails and drag-and-drop file uploading would be unlocked,” Mark Milian blogs for The Los Angeles Times.

“Many of those features are beginning to be adopted by HTML5, the next revision to the standard programming language that powers the Web,” Milian reports. “For the time being, Gears will still feature a number of tools that can be opened using Firefox and Internet Explorer. The technology is built into Google’s Chrome browser.”

However, Milian reports, “As Google prepares to release its first beta version of Chrome for the Mac (a developer preview has been available for months), the company is letting the sun set on its Gears project. ‘We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites,’ wrote a Google spokesman in an e-mail.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Safari was the first browser to support HTML 5 audio and video tags. They allow developers to integrate media directly into standard web pages, reducing development time and leading to faster response for users. And by supporting HTML 5 offline technologies, Safari allows web-based applications to store information on users’ hard drives, so they can use web-based apps without an Internet connection. More info here.