Google Gears (Via pedersondesigns.) It seems Google is beginning to offer an offline version of their online applications. John Pederson says simply, “game over” – presumably in reference to the competition between Google and Microsoft. In any case, this bodes well for the future of applications like Google Docs and Spreadsheets (in addition to Reader). However, I wonder if the need to install a database on the local machine will keep this from being used in many schools? As long as we can keep our connections up, the pure web-based versions of the applications may be better solutions.