Good-bye Google Gears, hello HTML5

Google technologies are known for their extended beta test periods -- so much so that when the search giant actually ships a finished product it's front page news. But if beta represents the salad days for a Google project, its adult life can be considerably shorter and more brutal. Consider the fate of Google Gears. Launched just four years ago, Gears officially ground to a halt last week, soon to be replaced by equivalent technology from the HTML5 specification.

Gears arrived in early 2007 amid much enthusiasm among Web developers. Its goal was to provide a means for Web browsers to maintain state between sessions, bridging the gap between the traditional desktop computing paradigm and the nascent world of cloud computing. By maintaining copies of essential data on the client PC, Gears allowed Web-based applications to remain accessible even when the PC lacked Internet connectivity.

However, there will be no more new Gears releases. Gears will never be available for the latest wave of browsers, including the just-released Internet Explorer 9 and the upcoming Firefox 4. Even Google's own Chrome browser, which has shipped with Gears built-in since its inception, will be dropping support for the technology as of version 12, due later this year.