Comments on: The Google Hamburger

By: Stewart Marshall

Stewart Marshall — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:13:40 +0000

Not being a geek I came across Google Gears and the concept of offline apps which I started using Remember the Milk. I also found it handy when I wanted to work on a google document I was using.

The question for me is whether it will change/enhance the way I do things. The answer feel is no. I could easily ‘work round’ this and come up with another solution.

If I don’t have internet access and need to do something do I think “oh good there’s google gears – fantastic!” ???

No, I normally think “where CAN I get internet access?”

By: Duane Storey

Duane Storey — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:32:30 +0000

I totally agree – it really has to work with everything for it to take off, and right now, it doesn’t at all.

By: John Biehler

John Biehler — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:28:30 +0000

I only ever use Gears when I am on a plane and even then, I’ve spent the time to set it up and offline all my feeds then never use it because I just watch a movie instead.

Plus it doesn’t work with Safari which is a pain since I usually only use Firefox at work (on a PC).

I think the concept of Gears is cool but it needs to work with everything (maybe baked into the browser) and not just some things from Google. But the value is also decreasing the more we’re hooked into the things like Twitter and Facebook that change every second/minute.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:29:13 +0000

I think the point to gears is not particular to reading offline content but allowing a web application to continue to function in an offline environment. The best example I can think of.. think of a company like Comcast, where they’ve got tons of technicians moving around and accomplishing tasks and objectives, no where near any WiFi yet when they come back to the office they’re going to need to synchronize what they’ve accomplished.

By: Dale Mugford

Dale Mugford — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:35:24 +0000

I want to eat my hamburger offline, will Gears let me do that?

By: Jeremy Latham

Jeremy Latham — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:30:30 +0000

Offline content would be great if it could make you “online”. But I agree with Raul, other than the Canadian mobile phone issues, I can pretty much be online whenever I need to be.

That hamburger looks unbelievable btw – egg + pineapple…looks like a good aussie burger “with the lot” minus beetroot.

By: fotoeins

fotoeins — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:10:15 +0000

It might be dedicated to the core’d geekers, but I think we’d agree that this is part of the effort for total integration, so that the distinction between online and offline becomes ever more blurry, let alone what it means to update our respective status via IM, website, 3rd-party app, widget, or mobile phone. IMNSHO, the (existence of an) “Off” button or switch is going to become even more important.

By: Raul

Raul — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:08:36 +0000

I used to want offline content, but honestly at this point, I’m online a vast majority of the time.