Google Gears as Backdrop for Mobile Ajax

When iPhone was released, it signaled something revolutionary for mobile phones: Instead of being limited by the pocket versions of browsers, users of mobile devices can experience full website interaction because regular browsers are not installed in their mobile devices. Using Wifi, users will feel they are actually using a laptop in a miniature level. Forget UMPCs (ultra mobile personal computer), the capacity of mobile devices is increasing so you don’t have to bring your laptop just to communicate or just enjoy the web.

However, browser as the platform for applications is still very limiting. The challenge for mobile users today is on how to use their mobile phones to browse and use online applications without incurring additional payments by using wireless networks.

Each kilobyte is billed and even if you have an unlimited data, you’ll end up paying a lot more than what you use. There are also developers today that build online applications that require the latest hardware – the requirement that can’t just be applied to mobile devices.

That is why another platform is increasing its popularity among web developers. Instead of loading the entire application online, why not let them download a client that could interact with the user whenever they connect online? Google Gears is exactly like that. Developers for mobile devices today have seen the beauty of Google Gears. It doesn’t require a lot of connection to the internet, but the experience is there.

The applications developed with the use of Google Gears could be loaded independently or they could be used as a plug-in for browsers. By using Google Gears, users will no longer have to connect to the internet just to have the interface. The interface is already loaded in the mobile phone so only the data is the only thing left to be loaded.

Through Google Gears, developers could be an Ajax based application using Java. No need for extra knowledge of JavaScript since Google Gears could be used with GWT to build simple yet highly effective Ajax based applications or plug-ins.

With regards to data, Google Gears has the reputation of having the best support for HTML 5. This version of HTML is robust and could handle challenging tasks such as streaming information online and handling div that contain small commands for Ajax. HTML 5 could be used for data transfer only since the interface is already loaded within the mobile device. By using the hardware capacity of the mobile device instead of connectivity, users of applications of Google Gears will receive the expected data faster compared to applications loaded from browsers.

Google Gears is not just another fancy plug-in from Google. It’s still on its beta version but it has been used for thousands of applications and millions of installations in desktop computers. The community support is also excellent so any questions regarding the development of Google Gears should have a good answer from the community. Lastly, Google Gear’s ability to move seamlessly across browsers makes Google Gears a perfect plug-in for browser in mobile devices.