Google shuts down Google Gears for now

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced recently they were shutting down Google Gears for a while. This is no small matter as Google Gears is the feature that enables users to save their documents for offline use and then sync back with the document when they reconnect to the Internet. For many corporate users, in fact, this is a must-have feature.

Google made the announcement with little fanfare. Instead of a post in the Official Google Blog with an explanation as you might expect, Google simply left a small announcement at the top of the Google Gears page, which stated:

"Please note: ​As of May 3rd, 2010, we're suspending Google Docs offline access through Google Gears. We know this is an important feature for some of you, and we're working hard to bring a new and improved option for offline access."

According to a Register article, Google has decided to rework Google Gears using the HTML 5 standard. That's fine as far as it goes, but it leaves users in the lurch while they build the new versions. I'm not clear why they wouldn't leave a working version in place, as many people depend on Google Gears today. It's certainly an odd way of handling the transition and Google clearly could have done a better job in this instance than it did.

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