A Box of Google Gears

Google Gears is a plugin that has been a long time coming and addresses some the of the ideas I discussed in my earlier post, "Offline Web Applications". My only exposure to it has been as a Google Reader user and to be honest I was a bit disappointed. My main gripe is that it requires the browser to remain open after going offline. It works fine if you go offline, then disconnect from the Internet and keep your browser open. But shutting down the browser, then restarting without an Internet connection does not work at all. Also, reloading Google Reader while in offline mode (without an Internet connection) does not yield pleasant results.

I don't suspect many users will find this acceptable. But since this a Google backed plugin I have hope that it will improve soon. In fact, I would not be surprised if Google rushed the plugin out the door in reaction to the spat of RIA Frameworks being announced.

Even though the plugin needs some refining, the potential is there for Web Applications to become viable alternatives to Desktop Applications. Fast-forward a few years and Google Gears is probably more stable and sophisticated. In fact, the API it exposes is likely included by default in most browsers (i.e. Firefox 3). More importantly, Web Application Developers have figured out how to incorporate offline mode seemlessly into the user experience.

But how do Web Applications gain greater acceptance in the enterprise? Perhaps by bringing the server closer to the user. This could come in the form of a box that plugs into a network and services requests for certain URLs itself (i.e. intercepts requests for Google Docs or GMail), runs code locally against a local database, and responds back to the browser. Then, depending on how the box is configured, synchronizes data back to an origin server. With the box in place, data is stored in-house (with optional offsite storage) and application response rates are much faster. Devices like the Asus Eee PC or OLPC could replace the desktop for most needs and would have the added benefit of continuing to work as normal outside of the enterprise network since requests for Web Applications would go directly to the origin server.

This box could be equally useful in a home setting (likely even more accepted) as a combo unit that acts as a wifi access point, router, and file server in addition to its application server role. Imagine using an App like Flickr served from a Gears box (leap of faith: assume box is open). Upload rates would be super fast as would editing and organizing your media. So fast in fact, there would be no need to use a Desktop App to first organize and upload your media (Goodbye F-Spot). What does Google have to do with this box? Nothing, other than they seem to be a company that wants to push the usefulness of Web Applications and become a dominant application provider.

But that's enough baseless speculation over the future of computing. At this point I am merely hopeful that in a few years Web Applications will have the option to be delivered this way.