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Google cranks up a gear

The release of an application for offline working is a huge leap, says linton chiswick
.

In what is widely being seen as an assault on Microsoft in its own backyard, Google has revealed the latest piece in a jigsaw of software that includes email, word processing and spreadsheets.

Google Gears - revealed last Thursday - is a tiny download with huge implications. Until Thursday, Google's software differed fundamentally from Microsoft's Office suite by remaining wholly web-based. Anybody could open a free Google account (click "log in" on the Google search page) and enjoy access to a fine calendar,


 

an excellent rss feed reader to stay up to date with websites and rudimentary-but-reliable word processing.

Files are stored remotely at Google HQ, and work is done through the web browser. It's a system known as the "web app", and ever since the roll-out of broadband and wi-fi a hardcore of enthusiastic technologists have been telling us that one

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day all computing will be done this way.

Except – of course - there are problems. Not everyone feels comfortable storing files on a server many thousands of miles away. Who can guarantee they won’t be read - or lost?

More fundamentally, what happens when there isn't a

 

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