Gears are turning for offline Google Docs editing

It's almost sad that Zoho is using Google's own Gears service to allow for offline document editing, but I expect that will change soon. Google Blogoscoped stumbled on to an experimental Google Docs page where Gears appears to be semi-implemented. It's definitely a work-in-progress at this point and there's no indication of when such an offline synchronization function would go public, but clearly Google has recognized the need for document editing while disconnected from the cloud.

I've used Google Docs for my last two published articles, which worked very well, but I'd like the ability to cut the cord with and work offline as needed through Google Gears.

Comments

[Sean]

I will be very happy to see the gears service go live.

[Mike Cane]

Does this Gears stuff work on the iPhone?

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Gears is only supported in IE and Firefox currently, not even Safari on the Mac. Since the iPhone always has connectivity, I doubt we'll see Gears for it.

[turn_self_off]

isnt mozilla working on a similar system?

[Mike Cane]

>>>I doubt we'll see Gears for it.

Apple and Google are like cousins. You might be surprised.

But I'd really rather have Pocket iWork!

[Chris K]

Even with an always-online device, Gears is still a good idea. If you lose signal, for example, a cache will save your bacon.

It would be awesome to have a full cache of docs on all of my devices, synched up to the cloud, available for my use no matter where I am.

Music, of course, is a lot dicier...

[Greg C]

Kevin, if you are using Google Docs for your writing, you might find this article interesting - using Googole Docs to write a book. Some good tips in the article and the book sounds like something to look forward to.

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-23-n82.html