Google yesterday announced a new library called Google Gears that helps developers take their Ajax applications offline. Gears includes 3 main things: a local server that stores application pages for working off line, a database (based on SQLite) for storing (and accessing) data, and a "WorkerPool" that does most of the work, including synchronizing data between the server and the application. As a developer, your Ajax code will always hit the local server, and the WorkerPool class will take care of managing the data between the client and server.

The question on a lot of people's minds today is what does this mean for rich Internet application developers. David Mitchell Smith, Web analyst for Gartner, says that this actually reduces the need for RIAs and rich clients, and Ryan Stewart seems to agree, saying that this will likely mean fewer applications built on Apollo.

They may be right. Google is certainly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the browser with this release, as they have for the past few years. Ajax development is difficult, but their GWT toolkit is making it easier (at least for Java developers). I'm sure a few developers will be looking at this as a solution to many of their problems. However, I'm not really sure that the main problem for Ajax developers right now is offline access - I don't think that's the holy grail (David HH agrees).

I think in order for this to be truly successful Gears is going to have to be installed in browsers by default. The installation process right now is fine for developers, but my mom won't be too happy to have to install an extension to Safari in order to get something to work. Time will tell if Apple and Microsoft agree to install this by default in their browsers (Firefox including it is a no brainer). That is going to take a long time to happen, likely a few years, if it happens at all.

There's a lot of coverage on this today. Here's what I would recommend reading: Slashdot, Ryan Stewart, Information Week, O'Reilly, and TechCrunch.