1) It’s optional. That is, apps can be developed to work entirely online but have an optional “go offline” mode for those users who actually have Google Gears installed. This makes it a no brainer to support since you’re not damaging existing users by making provisions for Google Gears (though the same argument was made of Web standards, and look where that got us ).

2) It’ll probably end up in the browser by default. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like Google Gears ends up become a publicly accepted technology and is standardized and included in the next generation of mainstream browsers. Firefox 3.0 is certainly making steps in that direction.. so who’s to say Google won’t define the standard with Gears?

3) Gears makes it possible to use one app, rather than migrate between two. It’s possible to work on your Excel spreadsheets online with Google’s tools already, and when you want to go offline, you just edit them in Excel. Gears will allow us to simply stick with one.

I am sure these don’t answer all of your concerns, they certainly don’t answer all of mine.. but they’re points that, at least, rationalize it a little more to me.

Yup, and so is GG for the average person. How do you even begin to explain what it does to your mum (given that she’s not an IT professional herself). One of the points I was trying to make is, that this is a technology that seems appealing to bleeding edge users, or even programmers but not the layperson.

I mean, come on – how many times did you hear somebody curse M$FT because his work got lost. Imagine the confusion something like Google Gears will create for these people, even if GG was deliverable.

People may be blind in following Google everywhere since it has the cool-factor, but I think this is a technology that will have to build it’s own market to subsist. No end user is going to adopt it just for the fun of it. Google has long had ambitions to take Microsofts throne and maybe this is just the latest step in this direction, but as for having enough leverage to pull this one off successfully – I remain sceptical.

And yea, I liked the workerpool too

I don’t think Google Gears is the second coming, but looking at the past, it’s yet another solution to get rid of some of the problems with current client Javascript applications, which will allow developers to make them look even more like real client side apps. Google Reader will serve as the first example, with the rest of the Google Apps to follow. And since everyone looks to Google for ideas nowadays… well, that’s the way the world will go.
Ever wonder why you’re using a CPU whose direct ancestor was designed to power desktop calculators or why we were using 16 bit rubbish software in the mid 90s? No good reason… just business reality…

Oh… and the worker pool is a nice solution for threading in Javascript…