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Brad Neuberg, Google Gears, and the Future of the Web

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the where-are-we-headed dept.

Linux.com has an interesting look at Google Gears and one of its leading evangelists, Brad Neuberg. "For Neuberg -- as for most developers -- the idea of expanding the Web's capabilities is intriguing in itself. But both inside and outside Google, his argument is that there's more at stake than just a particular piece of technology. In fact, he does not even seem particularly concerned whether Gears or some rival project takes on the role he envisions. What matters, he says, is that finding a solution to the problems of the Web is essential not only to the continued evolution of the Web, but also to its continued freedom. "

1 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Further adoption by BradNeuberg · · Score: 3, Informative

    After reading the article (really!) I can see how Gears is more than just offline storage, but extending the browser to do what it should. Right now it is only available as a FF plugin right? Could it be expanded into the google toolbar? ported to IE in the toolbar?

    I want to look at this as a way to make even more powerful webapps, but until it gets more widespread it only seems appealing to apps that have a clear offline use. Gears is currently available on Firefox 1.5+ (Firefox 3 soon), Internet Explorer 6+, and Windows Mobile 5 and 6. It works across Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Safari support is coming soon, Opera is being worked on, Firefox 3 support is done but is being dogfooded and tested. Expect to see Gears on other mobile browsers as well at some point.

    Best,
        Brad Neuberg