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Google Gears for Mobile Better than Web Version?

posted on March 4, 2008


Over at the Google Mobile Blog, they’ve announced the release of Google Gears for mobile.

It’s only available for IE Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, but they already have Zoho and Buxfer as Google Gears providers.

With Google Gears for mobile integrated into mobile Zoho and Buxfer, you can now access these web applications even when your phone is disconnected from the mobile web. Stuck on a plane? No problem — you can still read your docs on your mobile with Zoho Writer Mobile offline. Want to buy that new plasma TV, but can’t remember how much is in your account? Check your balance with Buxfer’s mobile web application, even if there is no cell phone signal.

Here’s what caught my eye…

Once installed, Gears sits happily on your phone helping you stay connected to your data — even when you lose your network connection.

So why can’t we get the same for web services? If you want to use Google Gears for Google Reader, for example, you have to go “offline” first. In other words, you have to manually switch to offline mode, for Google Gears to work. It seems like the mobile version doesn’t have that step, making it much more valuable.

I don’t know about you, but there are many times that I didn’t expect to lose my web connection–or I’m at a crappy conference without WiFi–so why can’t I get the same feature???

Want to learn more? There’s a video you can watch, though I’ve not watched it myself yet. Let me know if it’s any good. ;-)


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  • http://www.brickmarketing.com Brick Marketing

    Absolutely agreed. If this is available for mobile phones, it should certainly be available for the regular web. Obviously the need is greater on the web than for specific phone models. The video is ok…much of what you said was repeated through this interview.

  • http://www.goodnightmoonfuton.com Futon-Matt

    That’s a really cool feature. I went to Vegas last month and couldn’t do anything during the flights.

  • http://shonzilla.tumblr.com Shonzilla

    Great news indeed! I was waiting for this…

    On a side not, this type of back-end feature in mobile applications is what will make them even more useful to the regular Joe and Jane.

    Regarding your comment that you need to manually go off-line within Google Reader, I guess it has been intentionally implemented that way so that no necessary traffic is created.

    They’re not implying that you application auto-magically is synchronized with data you might need off-line. It’s up to application designers and, ultimately, to the end user when and what to synchronize.

    Mobile networks, being more probable to lose connectivity, need Google Gears even more.

    Waiting for the Google Gears for Symbian and Google Android… :-)

    Cheers
    Shonzilla

  • http://Mp3world.inf pola

    google….I’m loving you so much give me some more

  • http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk PS3

    I spent far too long wating for apps to come out to make my mobile more than just a phone. In the end, I decided that is just what it is. I have something very basic – I can call people, they can call me.

    …and the odd text.

    Simple.

  • http://www.exposedseo.com SEO guy

    I think Google is trying to do too much of everything at the same time. Some things work out great, others don’t. Those that don’t stay like that for ages.

  • http://codinginparadise.org Brad Neuberg

    The link for Dojo Offline should be http://dojotoolkit.org/offline

  • http://chasinggoogle.blogspot.com/ Mobile guy

    When it will be available for Symbian?

  • http://www.jordankasteler.com/utah-seo-pro-blog/ Utah SEO

    Google’s really after mobile as the future. I think Yahoo! agrees but is more after social.

  • http://pixelbella.com Dana Lookadoo

    Figured I’d check it out. I would not have know about this unless I had subscribed to your email updates!

    Good video, a little long… Went to the link on their site, which brought up a 404 error. On refresh, it opens a page to the developer’s guide. As a user, you have to search for the link to “Installing Google Gears,” to which they should have linked on their video page. Even on their blog, you don’t find the link to install. Poor conversion/usability, Google.

    After reading some blog comments, it might be good to wait and let the bugs iron out. One guy lost all his data. It would be interesting to see if anyone here has success a few weeks down the road. Maybe you can do a follow-up, Andy.

  • Pingback: Google Gears For Mobile | Hi Tech Edge

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