There was a time when I was the first on the block to try everything new that came out. Those times have long since past and family and other priorities have taken over. But this weekend, I was able to try Google Gears and finally understood the value of the service. Over the years, I’ve become a big believer in many of Google’s services. They are my primary search in all my browsers, I’m loyal to my GMail (more on that), and I’ve embraced Google Docs, much to the point that I don’t even have Microsoft Office installed on any of my Macs anymore. I must confess, though, that I do have iWork installed, though, for some of the more creative things – like family newsletters.
When Google Gears first appeared, I asked myself, why’d anybody want that? What does it buy you? See, I can’t imagine the world without Internet – its always close by for me, but not everyone is that way. I can’t say I really understood fully until this weekend. My wife and I have been discussing building a house and so all our spreadsheets with potential scenarios are in Google Docs, so we can share (talk about its killer feature, right?). Well, sharing is great, but we hadn’t had time to talk about some of the scenarios I’d put together. See, I am the geeky numbers one in the family and my wife confessed she really didn’t understand what she was looking at… So, we had an hour’s car ride Saturday while traveling to go see the circus with our daughter. Enter Gears.
