Loading up Google Reader tonight, I noticed a new link that read "Read Offline". What was this I wondered, so of course I clicked the link. It turns out that Google's been working on a new open source project called Google Gears that allows web applications to run offline. Very cool. I can see myself using this when I travel to read my RSS feeds on the plane, or in airports that don't have free wi-fi (why pay $10 just to read my feeds for an hour).
Gears is a browser extension that Google describes as adding "... just enough to AJAX to make current web applications work offline."
It's certainly an interesting approach. I doubt, though, that the approach will be as flexible as Adobe's Apollo platform, but it does offer another approach for allowing offline access. For Google Reader, it's a natural fit.
Google is also working with Adobe, Mozilla, and Opera (and other companies) on the project to ensure that the project has broad industry support.
You can read more about Google Gears on the Google Gears site.
