It’s been over one month since Google announced Google Gears (May 30th), plug-in for IE and FX browsers allowing web applications to go offline. Adobe didn’t even wait two weeks to introduce their Adobe AIR runtime environment. (June 11th) Both tools may at first appear to be similar, but they are not.
Google Gears is a platform enabling websites to operate when Internet connection is not present. It features its own web server that’s installed on user’s local computer, as well as the database. Obviously, the online app must be coded using the Google Gears tools so that it can be served from the the local drive.
Adobe AIR is a runtime environment that makes it possible to build offline apps using well-known web technologies and then launch them on PCs. The difference is significant as AIR is not made to solve the “Offline Problem”. It will rather enable the growing web developers’ community to use their existing skill set so that they tap into the area of desktop-based applications.
While AIR is definitely something to keep an eye on, GG attempts to solve some important problems that the online world is dealing with. The promise is that our applications will not only work offline, but will also run faster and be more reliable. User interface, images and other media will be instantly accessible and users will be able to open up and start using their website while it makes contact with the server to pull down updated/new content.
