Google Gears...Not Sure I Get It

Am I missing something? Am I totally out of touch with the way people work? Am I spoiled because I’m wired out the wazoo? Maybe. I’m trying to get my mind around Google Gears and I must admit, I just don’t see why so many are so excited about it. This has nothing to do with Google or their implementation of Gears. I’m sure the ideas and quality of implementation are top notch like most of Google's other APIs. But is the plight of the disconnected user still the major problem it was back in the day when people needed to go to the office to get internet access? I wouldn’t think so.

No doubt, I see the benefit of implementing a local cache server that allows users to interact with an application while highly consumptive processes are ported to a background process thus freeing up the UI. But most well architected applications have that problem resolved by design. So, the benefit here is marginal. Further, when you factor in the additional support issues of managing that new resource coupled with synch support, I question the true net gain.

Next, many users who need to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of every waking moment can pretty much access an internet connection at will. Air travel represents the last frontier of disconnectedness but so too will this frontier be conquered. Everyday, market forces are busy at work supplying me with more, less expensive ways to connect to the web across an increasing number of devices. I think it's safe to say finding a connection for the average worker when need is not a big problem.

Finally, in order for offline system access to really pay dividends, it needs to be passive. Passive meaning applications should inherit this capability from some layer of devliery infrastructure and I as a user should not have to plan for it in advance. Otherwise, the technology will be useful only to disconnected data entry folks whose application developers had the forethought and will to design, and just as importantly, test this feature.

We debated the plight of the disconnected user when designing Ratchet-X. We punted on the issue due to the fact our product is all about connecting applications to services, web sites, databases, etc. There's not much to connect to if your application integration options are limited to your machine. However, we do allow you to exchange information between applications on your computer regardless of whether you’re wired or not. So, this time saving feature should free you up so you can spend more time sleeping on those long flights - at least for a little while longer.