Hello HTML5
If you've wondered why there haven't been many Gears releases or posts on the Gears blog lately, it's because we've shifted our effort towards bringing all of the Gears capabilities into web standards like HTML5. We're not there yet, but we are getting closer.
Context & Ripple Effects
A November report had already framed Google's direction as a move away from Gears toward HTML5. January's YouTube HTML5-supported video introduction showed another Google web property working with the emerging standard.
The Gears team confirms that its reduced release cadence reflects a deliberate reallocation: capabilities built as a Google-specific API are being pursued through web standards, although the work is incomplete.
First-order effects
- Gears users should expect less new platform development while Google directs engineering effort toward standardizing comparable browser capabilities.
- HTML5 becomes Google's stated destination for Gears-style functionality, shifting developers' planning from a proprietary API toward standards-based implementations.
Second-order effects
- Developers weighing Gears against HTML5 have a stronger reason to avoid new dependence on Gears, even before every capability is available through the standard.
- Google's own products and developer tooling gain an incentive to align with HTML5 support, as illustrated by YouTube's separate HTML5 video effort.
Third-order effects
- If Gears capabilities are absorbed into HTML5, web-application features move from vendor-specific extensions toward browser standards, reducing the strategic role of standalone browser APIs.
- The transition makes standards implementation by browsers a more important determinant of when web developers can replace Gears-dependent features.
The trend: Web application platforms are shifting from proprietary browser extensions toward shared HTML5 capabilities implemented across browsers.