Google Gears is a project that, if successful, may be a bigger threat to Microsoft than about any other technology. The premise is simple. It lets you work with online applications even when you aren’t connected to the internet. Right now it seems to be set up to work with Google Reader. This means you can take your Google feeds with you to read when you don’t have an internet connection. When you connect back to the internet, it will sync with the web version and mark everything you read.
This is probably going to be enough to make me switch from News Fire for my feed reader. The ability to read things offline was the main reason I had stayed with a stand alone feed reader instead of using Google’s product. Now I’ll be able to work offline when I’m on a slow connection, use the web version when I’m not at my primary computer, use my Blackberry to read feeds when I’m stuck in line or waiting for an appointment, and still keep everything synced together in one account.
So how does this present a threat to Microsoft? If the technology can be expanded to work with Google’s other applications (Gmail, Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Maps, etc.) it will severely encroach on Microsoft’s desktop applications. In the future, it is possible that Google could get their Gears application packaged with PC vendors so that users have a default word processor and spreadsheet that will work with or without an internet connection.
Google Gears can be downloaded as a Firefox plugin on the Mac and it comes as a full standalone application on the PC. It is still in beta, but so far it seems to work fine on OS X for me.
So what do you think? Do you think this has potential or do you think it is going to be limited to feed reading applications?
This has the potential to be huge. Right now, I’m too reliant on my PDA to get stuck with anything I can’t easily sync to it anytime, anyplace. Going online isn’t always possible.
I think you are correct to prognosticate that Google Gears will expand to other Google Apps like Docs & Spreadsheets, allowing for more traditional offline document creation/editing synched with the connected power of Google.
I must (sadly) disagree that any of this will be a serious threat to M$ Office, even once the software reaches a mature and stable state. Due to the long-standing mindset that applications should be run locally and the market penetration of M$ products, I cannot be too optimistic about Google overthrowing Microsoft. Example: OpenOffice.
There are two differences with OpenOffice that I can see. First OpenOffice doesn’t have the marketing power the Google has. People use Google’s Calendar because they tried Gmail, etc. Second OpenOffice doesn’t give you the ability to sit down at any internet connected computer and bring up your files.
Another thing that might be in Google’s favor is the fact the Microsoft is looking at offering hosted versions of MS Office. If Microsoft releases a web based version of Word, I think people will be more likely to embrace Google’s applications. Especially if Google’s are free.
Personally, I was surprised how many people were using Google Reader. I tried it a few times previously, but stuck with my NewsFire on my Mac. However, once they released a version I could use off line, I made the switch. The biggest benefit hasn’t been the offline access. It has been the ability to read my news feeds whenever I have a few minutes available regardless of what computer (or phone) is handy and have it keep track of my changes across all devices.
I think that once people experience the ability to get access from any computer, they will start seeking out other applications that give them this capability. Microsoft Office is has a huge market penetration, so it might be a long time before large businesses start switching over.
Regardless of what happens, it sure is interesting to see how far we’ve come from simple web pages thrown together in notepad. :)
Hi Mark,
I’ve been a Google Reader fan ever since I followed enough RSS feeds to warrant using an aggregator.
From the tide of reaction sweeping through the blogosphere alone, it’s obvious that Gears is going to be huge. I think the impact that Gears will make when it hits GMail is going to the killer feature everyone is waiting for. Along with the FireGPG plugin, I’ll be first in line to try it out!
Here’s hoping the Safari implementation of Gears isn’t too far off…
This is great news. I’ve already left Vienna for Google Reader so this great news for me. The only thing missing in Google Reader is a search function?!
@Gaz – I’d actually be surprised if they make a Safari implementation of Gears. Firefox seems to be setup well for handling this type of thing and Safari just doesn’t seem to have the plugin capabilities.
@Filip – I’ve been kind of surprized that Reader doesn’t have a search function–especially since it is from Google!