This being the Pirate Bay, however, we don't really expect the site to be down for too long. Chances are that the group will simply relocate to another ISP (the service is already somewhat decentralized) or move its operations to an offshore location. Just a few weeks ago, somebody actually created an archive of the Pirate Bay as a torrent file. With this, a third party could possibly recreate the Pirate Bay.

The sale of the Pirate Bay to GGF, however, will remain uncertain, even if the site comes back online. Currently, Swedish stock market regulators are looking into this deal to determine if GGF actually has enough money to complete the deal or if the announcement was just a scam to boost GGF's stock price.

As explained on Google's FAQ:

"Gears is an open-source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. Gears provides three key features:

• A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server;
• A database, to store and access data from within the browser;
• A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background."

That is important. The biggest single hurdle to mass adoption of web-based office software is the inability to use it when online access is not possible (in airplanes and other fun places off the grid). Offline access is also reassuring for those times when the cloud platform is having trouble: at least you can work offline for a while. This is not a small feature. It is the big one.

We get the usual beta warnings from Google:

"Gears is currently a beta product; moreover, it is currently considered to be a developer-only release. When the developer community has had a chance to examine, critique, and improve Gears, a final version suitable for use with production applications will be made available."

But we learn to ignore these beta designations from Google. Gmail still says beta.

But in this case, Google really is being shy about fully bringing Gears to its own product line-up.

Zoho Is Using Gears. Why Not Google Apps?

Zoho started using Gears in Writer as early as August 2007, nearly 18 months ago. In October 2008, Zoho Mail went offline with Gears.

On March 31st, 2008, Google announced Gears for Docs. This was a step forward, albeit 8 months after its competition (Zoho) did it.

So, the big question is, "When will Gmail enable offline use via Gears?" I posed this question to Dave Grirouard, President of Google Enterprise. The response was along the lines of, making it work on the scale of Gmail is not a trivial engineering challenge. That sort of made sense. But Gears has been out for a long time; it is a critical feature, and Google has the best software engineering talent on the planet.

Ahem, What About Chrome?

Is Google holding up Gears until Chrome can support Gears? We hope not. That seems contrary to its philosophy to date, which has been to couple them very loosely. So that is probably just coincidence.

Editor's update: we obviously got the above section totally wrong, so it's been struck out. Apologies for that error, but thanks to our commenters for quickly pointing it out!

"Gears for Mobile Is the Holy Grail"

I had a fascinating talk with Vic Gundotra (VP of Engineering) and Sumit Agarwal (Mobile Product Management). They laid out a mobile strategy that clearly shows that Google is thinking bigger and deeper than anyone else about the future of this huge market. They were also frank about the scale of the engineering challenge. Looking globally, there is no dominant mobile device. In fact, it is an extremely fragmented market. That is a problem when each user expects a native interface.

Vic Gundotra described how about a year ago Google bet that the mobile browser would be the unifying force. Specifically, the strategy was to standardize on Webkit-based browsers. That makes sense but still leaves out the all-important offline access question. So, I posed the "What about Gears?" question. I was told that Gears in a mobile browser was, of course, the "holy grail."

The Answer Given Is Probably Correct

Google is confirming that Gears is critically important to both its web apps and its mobile strategy, and that the delay is simply because deploying Gears on the scale that Google operates is a tough engineering challenge. That seems like the best explanation. But we would love to hear from our readers. Have you used Zoho Mail with Gears, and did it work well? Is it simply a scale issue that is delaying Google's more aggressive deployment of Gears?

Evernote

The newest version of the popular Evernote note-taking app introduced one of the most requested features: offline notes. Through a new button called "favorites," you can mark notes for offline access. If you have Evernote on your iPhone already (who doesn't?), then check the app store for updates because this one is a must-have. Evernote newbies can just download the app now.

Stanza

The Stanza ebook reader lets you port reading material from your computer to your iPhone wirelessly so you can take your books with you when you're out and about. Once loading up with books, you can read them anytime, whether or not you have an internet connection. Download Stanza here. (Another option is Readdle, or check out our previous article for even more ebook readers.)

Instapaper

The Instapaper bookmarking tool for iPhone lets you bookmark web pages for offline reading. As any iPod Touch user knows, mobile Safari's tendency to auto-refresh pages means you can't open up web pages and save them for later reading offline. You could also choose to buy the Pro version for $9.99 which uncaps that limit while also adding other features like tilt scrolling and an adjustable text size. Download here.

Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia app from Steam Heavy Industries delivers a complete copy of Wikipedia to your iPhone/iPod Touch for offline access. By complete they mean the complete article text, but not references, image descriptions, user profiles, etc. Being warned, though, this app needs quite a bit of storage space: 2 GB. Download here.

NYTimes

The NYTimes iPhone app lets you read the news from the New York Times right on your iPhone. You can navigate through the stories quickly, select up to four favorite sections for one-touch access, choose to browse by photos which link to the stories upon touch, and, of course, read the news offline.

MiGhtyDocs

The MiGhtyDocs iPhone application takes your Google documents offline for access anywhere. You can't edit them and save your changes, but at least you can get to them. Currently, only text documents and spreadsheets are supported. No word on slideshows yet.

An RSS Reader

There are actually quite a few RSS readers available from the iTunes App store, many which sync with your Google Reader for offline access. However, this author's personal favorite is Byline, a $2.99 app which offers a 2-way sync with Google Reader. You can even star, share, add notes, and email your RSS feeds, just like in Google Reader itself. To really juice it up with tons of feeds for an extended period of offline time, go into your Settings app and configure it to archive 200 items instead of its default limit.

Some of Google's competitors such as Zimbra or Zoho are already offering some of these capabilities based on Google Gears. MySpace, too, is working on making its messaging platform available offline using Gears.

As Alex Chitu from the Google Operating System blog observes, Google's support for SyncML is also noteworthy. SyncML is an open standard for synchronizing information between different devices and, so far, has mostly been adopted by the mobile phone industry, with all the major companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Sony, LG, as well as IBM and Siemens supporting it in at least some of their products.

The latest version of SyncML has added support for push email. According to Andrew Fogg, Google is using SyncML for synchronizing its contacts database with the iPhone, but in the long run, it is probably worth speculating if Google might also start pushing email to the iPhone (or any other phone for that matter), using the SyncML push technology.

MySpace is using Gears to allow users to store their message archive on their computer and search it in real-time. The company will be "proactively prompting" power users with over 5,000 stored messages to opt-in to the Gears mail system, and clearly hopes that by moving mail search queries offline, it will lower the site's computing requirements. "Operating at a scale with four to six million concurrent users a day, we are saving significant and expensive server-side resources by creating this feature utilizing Gear," said Allen Hurff, senior vice president of engineering at MySpace in a press release.

The Year in Gears

Gears was launched in May 2007 at Google's developer conference. Google Reader was the first in house implementation of the technology, which lets web applications go offline by syncing data to a local database. Australia-based to-do list app Remember the Milk was one of the first third-party apps to embrace Gears, and in November, Zoho Writer went offline on Gears, beating Google's own Docs app, which wouldn't go offline until two months ago (Documents is read/write, but Spreadsheets and Presentations are currently just read-only).

Last month, we questioned whether offline access is even necessary. After all, wrote Sarah Perez, "in today's world, you're never too far from an internet connection." We concluded that offline access is important now, but less important with each passing day.

Later, we noted that there's a difference between offline and desktop access, the latter being an important step in the evolution of web applications and the path toward mass adoption. Desktop access, such as provided by "competing" offline APIs Prism from Mozilla and AIR from Adobe, is different than Google's "keep it in the browser" approach to bridging the desktop and online worlds.

I asked Google about AIR and Prism, and Director of Engineering Linus Upson told me that they look at Prism and AIR as single site browsers -- web browsers restricted to a single web application. "We'd love to see Gears support in both of them," said Upson. Because Gears is a browser extension, Upson told me it could theoretically be used to extend AIR or Prism and allow developers the ability to give their apps access to new web standards that AIR and Mozilla don't yet support.

Future Pushing Open Standards

The Gears project was started internally because developers at Google were fed up with how slow browsers adopt new and exciting web standards. Browsers are generally hesitant to implement new technologies, and Google looked at Gears as a way to get access to those standards without having to wait for the browser world to catch up.

In a recent post on the Google Code blog, Gears Engineer Aaron Boodman wrote about how going forward, Gears will strive to implement web standards defined for HTML5 into Gears, giving developers access to those features while browser vendors are still playing catch up. "Gears aims to bring emerging web standards to as many devices as possible, as quickly as possible," he wrote.

Upson told me that Google wants to see standards available in all browsers, and offering bits of HTML5 standards via Gears, which is a cross-browser extension, is the fastest way they could think to do it. It is Upson's hope that Gears will actually help speed the adoption of web standards.

"By implementing emerging web standards, Gears is influencing what the web of tomorrow will look and act like," Boodman wrote. Upson and VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai echoed that sentiment and told me that Google is deeply involved in helping to shape the development of future web standards at the W3C.

He then points us to a resource that can help. Using LCDS, Christophe Coenraets has just published a sample application called InSync (zip file) that shows developers how to build an AIR app that offers automatic offline data synchronization. What this means is that the whole data sync process is entirely automatic - developers don't have to write SQL statements or sync logic to keep a local database in sync with the central one.

InSync Sample App

You might be thinking that this news really doesn't impact you because you're not a developer, but what you're going to see is the impact of this as more developers begin to use LCDS. Take, for example, the nifty little AIR app called ReadAIR (that just added keyboard shortcuts - yes!). This app lets you read Google Reader via a desktop app. On the project homepage's "to-do" list, one upcoming item is "offline sync." By using LCDS, the process of enabling such a thing could be much easier. And if it's easier to develop, you'll get that offline sync added to your favorite AIR app much faster. You'll also see more apps providing this in the future. As developer John C. Bland wrote on his blog:

"I'm a skeptic at times when I see a little bit of code doing a lot but DANG! This time I was proved wrong."

If you'd like to discuss any of the following examples in real time with other readers, and see where their mouses are going on the page while you're reading, click on the button below. Details about this at the end of the article!

Offline Syncing

Web connectivity is approaching ubiquity for urban web users in the developed world, but there are a number of reasons that off-line access to web content is gaining momentum. Wireless coverage is often spotty, EVDO is expensive and often under-performs, air travel requires working offline for now and it's just nice to have a local copy of content that you can use without going online.

Google Gears is the best known way that apps are going offline and it's not just Google apps that use the platform to download content and sync back up when connectivity returns. Web office Zoho offers Gears support for offline use of its tools, for example, as does the handsome mind mapping tool MindMeister. Google Gears also has a mobile component. Some apps at least have had initial problems with the fidelity of the syncs back online - syncing anything is hard.

Here's an hour-long nerd-a-thon from last month, titled "What's New in Google Gears." If you're interested in a detailed status check on Gears, this is a fun little video to watch.

It's not just Google doing offline synching. Application development framework Etelos recently rolled out the capability to take any app offline, including enterprise installs of Google Apps, MediaWiki and WordPress.

The new Firefox 3 is also offering offline support for web apps in general, though the apps will need to be re-engineered in order for this to be truly viable. Firefox 3 is still in beta, but I use the current version exclusively and it's great on a Mac. Zimbra is available using Firefox's early offline support, you can read about the newest developments here.

Sometimes, though, it's good when you're offline to just be alone with your thoughts for awhile, or pay attention to your non-electronic surroundings.

Rich Internet Apps - RIAs

Rich Internet Apps are applications that run on the desktop, outside of the browser, but utilize web connectivity for sending and recieving information. They've got the speed and responsiveness of a desktop app, combined with the read/write capabilities of a web app.

Adobe's AIR platform is the most popular system for building consumer level RIAs so far and there are some really beautiful ones available allready. In addition to the best Twitter clients (AIR apps like Twhirl, Snitter and Spaz there are also many other applications being developed as RIAs. Check out the very cool directory site FreshAIR Apps for a taste of what else is being done in this space.

If you're interested in a deep dive into the world of RIAs, check out Redmonk's podcast series RIA Weekly.

Single App Browsers

Site specific browsers are a new direction being explored by a company called Fluid. Why would you want a single app browser? It's nice to be able to work with a particular application outside of your primary browser, just for ease of use, but there are even more reasons than that. Fluid allows a high degree of customization, including easy implementation of Greasemonkey user scripts. Check out the screencast video below.

I use a Fluid version of social music site Muxtape daily and just now began fantazising about putting Google Reader in its own Single App Browser.

Screencasting/sharing

Few things combine "wow" factor with utility as much as a good screensharing app. While there are a number of good paid options (Webex and Adobe Breeze) there are also a growing number of free ways to show someone else your desktop or look at theirs. While most screensharing apps require both parties to download a desktop client, one popular alternative is Yuuguu. This app lets the viewing party use a tab in their browser to watch the presenting party's desktop. It's really easy to use and is great for providing tech support or tutorials.

Presenter downloads are available for Windows and for Mac. I've had one problem broadcasting to a viewer using Windows, but generally speaking it's worked great.

Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is an easy way to add all kinds of functionality to existing web pages by adding simple javascript plug-ins to your Firefox browser. It takes five minutes and zero technical skills to use. First install Greasemonkey, then peruse a world of plug-in options. There are hundreds of scripts to chose from at Userscripts.org but our own Sarah Perez highlighted a list of some of the best for heavy social media users earlier this month. Unfortunately some of those scripts don't seem to work with the new Firefox 3 yet. See also the fabulous Gina Trapani's collection of Gmail scripts called Better Gmail. I just used it to add a number of new features to Gmail and am quite happy about it. See also GMail Redesigned, which isn't Greasemonkey - it's just using the browser's own CSS options to redesign GMail. That looks even better.

Check out this very, very charming video about "fixing the web with Greasemonkey." It's pretty cool.

Total Browser Pwnage

Firefly

The above apps are cool, but there's a whole other level of control that some new apps give you over the browser. We eagerly anticipate seeing more apps like the following.

What is this strange orange haze that many of you have been reading this post through? If you hadn't above you can open fireflywith this link. (RSS readers can click through to check this out) It's a simple little app called Firefly. First demonstrated by on Dave Winer's Scripting.com, it's a handy little bit of javascript that creates an interesting social browsing and chat experience.

Iterasi

Iterasi (disclosure: consulting client) is a plug-in that captures the exact content of a browser at a given moment in time, including AJAX states and forms. The saved content is then stashed in a personal online archive that can be searched inside of, shared with other people by email or embedded in a blog post.

While it's Windows only right now, as soon as there's a Mac version I look forward to using it to save legal forms online, company Terms of Service and many other kinds of web content. Give this embed below a click and see how it works.

Since I'm closer to this one than to many of the other apps here I can tell you it doesn't work as well yet as I wish it did, but it's coming along and has great potential. I regularly find myself wishing the Mac version was done so I could capture a page on a site with a click.

Dapper

Dapper is another web app that pushes the limits of the browser. It allows you to click to select any field on a web page and monitor that particular field for changes. Changes are delivered by RSS. The possibilities are endless.

The company has a number of other data outputs available, but almost all of them are broken and not worth trying to use. The company has recently struggled with some uptime issues as well. When it works and your needs are technically simple, Dapper can make web pages do back flips for you.

Conclusion

All of the above have their shortcomings but they all also offer a new world of functionality, they open a new horizon beyond the limitations of loading and reading and writing single web pages at a time.

These are some of our favorite post-browser apps, what are some of yours? We'd love to learn more about the bleeding edge of this kind of strategy. These are really fun and useful ways to use our computers.

Rainbow image by Cessna 206

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/post_browser_apps.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/post_browser_apps.php Analysis Tue, 20 May 2008 14:46:48 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick The Etelos Application Framework today launched a key new feature: the ability for applications there to run offline and sync when connectivity is available. The company requires zero code changes to be made in order for apps to go offline.

From apps developed natively for the Etelos marketplace to enterprise installs of Google Apps, MediaWiki and WordPress - the company expects a wide range of apps to make use of the offline functionality.

]]>Sponsor

]]> From Google Gears to (in theory) Firefox 3 to the mysterious Yahoo BrowserPlus project - a lot of people are clearly trying to make apps usable offline. We've debated the soundness of that trend here at RWW, but we do love us some desktop RSS reading, too.

The Etelos offering is just the latest from a company that offers primarily enterprise app developers a wide range of services. The idea behind Etelos is that the company takes care of everything from billing to customer management, allowing developers to make and sell great apps. Now those apps will be able to live offline, one more good reason to offer apps through the platform.

App account administrators (on the customer side) will be able to set varying permission levels to determine which users can access what information for syncing offline.

For the immediate future, at least, when in-flight wifi still seems a ways off and connectivity in general isn't what it ought to be - this sounds like a good idea. Offline access and later syncing is something that sounds uninspiring in theory but is very exciting when you're using it. Google Gears offers another level of emotional experience when you get to feel disappointment over the shaky quality of syncing once back online. There's certainly room for competition in the world of offline access to web apps.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/etelos_goes_offline2.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/etelos_goes_offline2.php Products Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:02:24 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick Here are some of the highlights from the week's Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb. The big news was Google App Engine - we provided extensive coverage and analysis. Also this week we looked into further use cases for Twitter, we analyzed the pros and cons of offline access to web apps, as well as why we need web apps on the desktop. We gave you seven tips to make the best use of your RSS Reader, we advised on the best places to find open data, and we looked at business development 2.0 and marketing 2.0 trends.

]]>Sponsor

]]> For those of you reading this via our website, note that you can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapups, either via the special RSS feed or by email.

Web Apps

Google App Engine: History's Next Step or Monopolistic Boondoggle?

The big news this week was the launch of Google App Engine, "a developer tool that enables you to run your web applications on Google's infrastructure." This will allow startups to use Google's web servers, APIs, and other developer tools to build a web app on top of. Google clearly has the scale and smarts to provide this platform service to developers. However, it begs the question: why would a startup want to hand over that much control and dependence to a big Internet company? Check out Marshall's analysis.

A new feature at ReadWriteWeb is an interactive game helping you to understand and contextualize web tech news in a fun way. This week we posted, via a new app from Impact Games, an interactive game that will let you model Google App Engine's impact in the marketplace. You can play the game here.

Our other coverage: Google App Engine: Cloud Control to Major Tom; HuddleChat: Did Google Just Rip Off 37Signals? and Google Takes Down HuddleChat After Complaints About 37Signals Ripoff

Related: Red Dog: Microsoft's Answer to App Engine and AWS?

How to Get Customer Service via Twitter

There has been a lot of talk lately of companies monitoring social media, be it Twitter, blogs, or social networking sites, for mentions of their company name and responding to customer service issues. Some of this interaction has been in the Twitter community, with Comcast being one of the more active participants as of late. Although in some cases, customers twittered their frustration after failing to receive the support they needed through traditional methods, in many cases, Twitter was the first place the customers vented their frustration, and then were surprised when they received a response from a support rep or company spokesperson.

Related: 5 Ways to Find More Friends on Twitter and Twittermethis Is A Brilliant Marketing Experiment

Seven Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Reader

RSS is a big deal, as anyone who's subscribed to even a few feeds probably knows. Once you get past just a few feeds, though, it can quickly get overwhelming. RSS can leave you feeling inadequate, brain-dead and uninspired. Trying out new things will help you discover new, magical experiences, though. Letting go of the stress caused by any obligation to read everything will go a long way.

Here are seven tips for making the most of your RSS reader, from simple to more complex.

SEE MORE WEB APPS COVERAGE IN OUR WEB APPS CATEGORY

Web Trends

How Important is Offline Access, Anyway?

In today's world, you're never too far from an internet connection. In developed countries, broadband access is available in more places than ever, and even poorer countries have internet cafes sprouting up left and right. Modern web workers and business travelers even take extra precautions to maintain always-on connectivity - packing air cards in their laptop bags or buying laptops that already have built-in EVDO access.

Despite the broad availability of internet access, it's the dead spots that have been pushing forward the need for offline access to web apps. For how can a web office suite like Google Docs or Zoho compete with desktop software if they become unusable when the internet connection disappears?

Why We Need Web Apps on the Desktop

Sarah Perez conclued in the above post that offline access is important now, but not as important as it once was. And that with the increasing ubiquity of Internet access, it is growing less important every day. However Josh Catone thinks there is an important distinction to be made between offline access to web apps (as Google Gears provides) and desktop access to web apps (as Mozilla's Prism and Adobe's AIR provide). The latter is a very important step in the evolution of web apps.

Where to Find Open Data on the Web

This week there was a story on Techmeme entitled "We Need a Wikipedia for data". The article, written by X-Googler Bret Taylor, discussed the difficulty of finding open data sets on the internet, something which could spur innovation, allowing programmers to build new applications the likes of which have never been seen before. What was interesting about this story, in addition to, obviously, the concept of a Data Wiki itself, was the amazing and insightful commentary around this concept, not just on the blog, but all over the net, something which led to the discovery of some pretty good data sources that are already available.

A Guide to Business Development 2.0

At least once each day I get a call from someone trying to sell me outsourced development services. It's difficult to not be frustrated with these calls and it is increasingly hard to be polite, because they come so frequently. Yet, more than frustrated, I am just puzzled. Does this tactic still work? Who in this day and age would give business based on a cold call? These companies could definitely use a dose of business development 2.0.

Related: Marketing 2.0: Can Meebo Make it Real?

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/weekly_wrapup_7-11_april_2008.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/weekly_wrapup_7-11_april_2008.php Weekly Wrapups Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:30:00 -0800 Richard MacManus Yesterday on this blog Sarah Perez wondered how important is offline access for web apps? Her conclusion was that offline access is important now, but not as important as it once was. And that with the increasing ubiquity of Internet access, it is growing less important every day. I won't dispute that, but there is an important distinction to be made between offline access to web apps (as Google Gears provides) and desktop access to web apps (as Mozilla's Prism and Adobe's AIR provide). The latter is a very important step in the evolution of web apps.

]]>Sponsor

]]> There are two main reasons for why desktop access for web apps is important:

• It will actually help make web apps more popular.
• Running a ton of apps in the browser at once is a pain.

The Desktop is the Key to Making Web Apps Mainstream

As I commented in Sarah's post yesterday, for those of us who read blogs like ReadWriteWeb, using web apps has become second nature. Putting data in the cloud makes sense, and the thought of being offline for more than 10 minutes per day seems ludicrous. But I suspect that's not the case for everyone.

For many mainstream users, I think the idea of storing your data in the cloud is kind of creepy (that's the word my girlfriend used the other day when I was explaining to her how things like Google Docs work). Giving those people access to the software in the traditional form of a desktop application will, in my opinion, help push them gently toward web applications. Get them hooked on Google Docs on the desktop, convince them of the convenience of having anywhere access to the app on the web, and then you might start seeing people really embrace web apps as they get more comfortable with the idea.

The conversation I had with my girlfriend went something like this (paraphrasing heavily here):

Her: "So where are my documents stored?"
Me: "On Google's servers."
Her: "And I don't actually own the software?"
Me: "No, you just sort of rent it."
Her: "So if Google goes down, or decides to stop making Docs, they take my software and documents with it?"
Me: "Theoretically that could happen, yeah."
Her: "And if there's a security breach my documents are there for the taking?"
Me: "Technically, yes."
Her: "That's kinda creepy.... I don't think I like that."

I think that's a fairly standard view among mainstream software users. So, desktop access becomes important as a means to an end. Web apps will have a much smoother road to mass mainstream adoption if offline/desktop versions are used as a bridge.

The Browser is No Place for Multitasking

Looking at my Windows taskbar right now, I have copies of Thunderbird, Trillian, Photoshop, FeedDemon, Notepad, Word, Winamp, and Twhirl running. Sure, I could run web app equivalents of each of those in the browser -- GMail, Meebo, Aviary Phoenix, Google Reader, Docs, Pandora, and a Twitter module in Netvibes might suffice. But they'd all be running in Firefox at once (oh, Firefox is also running on my system right now).

Managing those apps from the desktop is pretty simple. Managing them all at once in Firefox would be a nightmare, and would likely start to make Firefox unstable and act naughty. That's precisely the reason FreshBooks launched a desktop app today using Mozilla Prism. "One thing I hear occasionally from our users, especially Web professionals, is that running a bunch of browser-based apps at once can be a particular pain when the browser decides to misbehave," wrote Freshbooks developer Rich Lafferty.

As Mitch Grasso, founder of Sliderocket (our coverage) wrote in a comment here yesterday, "Adobe AIR isn't just about taking apps offline. Multi-window support, drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts, and access to the rich clipboard are all things that you take for granted in a desktop app are difficult or impossible to do in a browser. Browsers are designed for reading webpages - not hosting applications."

There might be a day when the web truly is our operating system, and when browsers really will be designed to run multiple applications. But that day hasn't arrived, and until it does, bringing web apps to the desktop is another important step in their evolution and the way forward in pushing the idea of hosting data in the cloud out to the mainstream.

Conclusion

There is a third reason desktop/offline access is important: web access isn't yet ubiquitous. There are plenty of times when connecting to the Internet just isn't happening, and having access to your data and your software on the desktop is definitely beneficial during those times. But, as Sarah wrote yesterday, no access is becoming more the exception than the rule. Every day offline access is becoming less and less important for applications, but desktop access is still necessary.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_need_web_apps_on_the_desktop.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_need_web_apps_on_the_desktop.php Trends Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:51:09 -0800 Josh Catone In today's world, you're never too far from an internet connection. In developed countries, broadband access is available in more places than ever, and even poorer countries have internet cafes sprouting up left and right. Modern web workers and business travelers even take extra precautions to maintain always-on connectivity - packing air cards in their laptop bags or buying laptops that already have built-in EVDO access.

]]>Sponsor

]]> Despite the broad availability of internet access, it's the dead spots that have been pushing forward the need for offline access to web apps. For how can a web office suite like Google Docs or Zoho compete with desktop software if they become unusable when the internet connection disappears?

In the short term, products like Google Gears, a browser plug-in that takes web apps offline, are a necessary evil, bridging the gap between desktop and web -nothing more than a transitional piece in the desktop to cloud computing move.

The offline component of Docs is clearly designed to make the move from desktop suites to web apps more comfortable and less off-putting for those accustomed to the stable, always available nature of their trusty desktop programs.

However, by focusing on an offline web, one has to wonder if this is really progress: if we wanted an offline word processor, well...don't we already have several of those available already? Shouldn't a product like Google Docs be more focused on what makes them unique in the office suite space instead?

Besides, going offline isn't easy - which is why you don't see many other web 2.0 developers taking their web-based startup to the desktop world. Additionally, offline apps aren't nearly as good as their online selves: As Harry McCracken wrote on a Sunday night blog post on PC World, "No current Gears-enabled app is anything like its full-blooded self in offline form--and since most of them are stripped-down compared to traditional desktop software even in their online versions, that means the offline ones are barebones at best."

It's true. When you go offline with Google Docs, you're missing out on one of the features that makes their suite worthwhile - real-time collaboration.

For obvious reasons, SaaS apps, like Google Docs, have trouble in a disconnected world. And while this problem might be a deal-breaker for some people now, it won't always be the case. Before too long, being offline will be the exception - even airplanes have started offering internet access - not the rule. And who knows what Verizon's spectrum win will bring a few years down the road?

So, yes, offline access is important now, but not as important as a few years ago, and certainly less important with each passing day.

Hopefully, companies like Google and Adobe and others focusing on providing offline tools, won't get too sidetracked in their need to compete with the desktop world since they would only be perfecting what will soon become an infrequently used feature.

Instead, the focus for these tools should be on the features that only an internet-connected program can offer, things like real-time collaboration or Docs' GoogleLookUp feature. These will be the driving forces to prompt mainstream use of online suites, not the fact that they work sans internet.

Maybe Google Gears isn't backward progress exactly, at least not today, but it's important for these web companies to keep their priorities straight: offer users amazing features they can't get in an offline program, then worry about fighting for desktop space.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_important_is_offline_access.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_important_is_offline_access.php Trends Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:51:05 -0800 Sarah Perez Google announced today that they would be adding the ability for users to work offline in their popular web office suite Google Docs. Offline support will be powered by the Google Gears API, which is a browser extension that allows developers to store application data offline and sync it back up again later when users are reconnected. Some lucky Docs users will get access to the new feature today, with offline support being rolled out to all Google Docs users over the next few weeks.

]]>Sponsor

]]> For now, Google Docs on Gears will only support editing of documents -- you can't create new ones -- and is currently only available on the word processor app. Deployment of offline support for the spreadsheet and presentation applications will come later, and will be read-only to begin with.

As we wrote in February, offline access was the one missing component to make Google's web office a serious competitor to Microsoft Office. Computing in the cloud is great because it means access to your information from anywhere, and on any machine, but it also means reliance on a high-speed Internet connection. Offline access removes that drawback and lets web applications behave even more like their desktop counterparts. Our only question is: what has taken Google so long?

They released Gears in May of last year, and so far the only service of theirs to use it has been Reader. Competitor Zoho launched an offline version of its word processing application using Gears last November, and we've long pointed out offline access as a major competitive advantage for Zimbra.

So what has been taking Google so long? Why isn't it eating its own dogfood and releasing more of its web apps with Gears support? What about Gmail? These are some important questions. The longer Google waits, the more time its competitors have to push out offline versions of their web applications and the longer Microsoft has to finally come up with a web app strategy that makes sense.

Below is a video of Google Docs offline created by Google. As you can see, the offine features function more or less the way they do in Reader.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_docs_offline_support.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_docs_offline_support.php Products Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:24:41 -0800 Josh Catone