Google ditches Google Gears in favor of HTML5 development

Google is saying “Hello, HTML5″ and goodbye, Google Gears. In a message posted on the Gears API Blog, Gears Team member Ian Fette explained why development has been slow:

“If you’ve wondered why there haven’t been many Gears releases or posts on the Gears blog lately, it’s because we’ve shifted our effort towards bringing all of the Gears capabilities into web standards like HTML5.”

Google has opted to focus on HTML5, which promises to offer many of the same online-to-offline functions for web apps currently available in Gears. It’s not yet easy to convert a Gears app to an HTML5 app, but Gears will be dead in the water once that technology arrives. Google will no longer invest resources into adding new features, and it will not support Safari on OS X Snow Leopard or later. Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer will be supported for the time being.

The problem with Gears is that it parallels the innovations that are also available in HTML5. Google has been a strong advocate of HTML5 and adding new features to Gears doesn’t make sense if they can focus on adding to what they believe will become a new web standard. Browsers are increasingly adding native support for offline functions for GMail and other services, so the need for Gears is dwindling. Developers and companies who have invested time in support Google Gears won’t like hearing that work will soon be for naught. The best they can do is join the HTML5 bandwagon and hope Google can cook up a worthy conversion tool.

Read [Gears Blog]