• Reuters, Friday, June 1, 2007 11:15 AM

Reuters takes a closer look at Google Gears, the new Google application programming interface. Gears will add and improve upon existing APIs so developers can make Google's tools better. The significant thing about this piece of software is that it runs Web applications offline, which would enable users to work on Web content on planes, trains or anywhere else in the world without Internet access.

"The Web is great, but it doesn't work very well when you don't have a Web connection," Jeff Huber, Google's vice president of engineering, said. "Gears addresses a functional gap on the Web." Gears would enable users of computers, cell phones or other Web-enabled devices to work on email, online calendars or news readers while completely offline. Bridging the gulf that separates desktop software from the Web is uncharted and potentially valuable territory, which is more bad news for Microsoft.

Google already has several partners for Gears, including Adobe Systems, maker of the Flash and Acrobat, Norway's Opera, maker of the Web browser popular with mobile phone users, and Mozilla, the group behind No. 2 Web browser Firefox. Gears is available as open source software, which means developers are free to use and enhance the software in their own products.

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