SAAS, or software as a service, gives you all the benefits and functionality of the most advanced business applications, without many of the overheads involved in traditional procurement.

Because the application is hosted by the vendor, you get economies of scale, pay only for what you use and get access from any computer with an internet connection.

But the need for online access is also the main weakness of the SAAS proposition.

If you are sitting on a long-haul flight, or find yourself in a hotspot blackhole, there is no way you can use the software. But now there is a solution on the horizon thanks to our friends at Google who have just launched Google Gears.

Although Gears has only been available for about two weeks, in an early-stage version, many software developers have rushed to give it a test drive and brainstorm for new ways to use it.

The long-term hope is that Google Gears can help the industry, as a whole, move toward a single standard for offline capabilities that all developers can use.

Google says Gears marks an important step in the evolution of web applications because it addresses a major user concern — availability of data and applications when there is no Internet connection available or when a connection is slow or unreliable.

As application developers and users alike want to do more on the web — whether it is email, CRM or photo editing — enhancements that make the browser environment more powerful are increasingly important.

By introducing new JavaScript application programming interfaces for sophisticated data storage, application caching, and multi-threading features, Google Gears builds on the web's existing programming model.

With these APIs, developers can bring offline capabilities to even their most complex web applications. Google Gears works with all major browsers on all major platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux.

Chief executive officer of Google Eric Schmidt said: 'With Google Gears we are tackling a key limitation of the browser in order to make it a stronger platform for deploying all types of applications and enabling a better user experience in the cloud.

'We believe strongly in the power of the community to stretch this new technology to the limits of what is possible and ultimately emerge with an open standard that benefits everyone.'

You can't understate how important the introduction of Gears is to the software industry.

Not having offline functionality is seriously detrimental to users of web suites such as Google Apps, for example. The lack of offline access means Apps could never have replaced Microsoft Office. Now, with Gears, it just might.

It makes sense. Who would want to pay up to £300 for Office 2010 Pro if Google Apps were roughly comparable, available on and offline and completely free? That's why Office is bound to shift from the desktop to the Web some time soon.

As an example of what is possible, Google Reader is now available with Gears-enabled offline capabilities. But Gears is a free, fully open, source technology and the hope is that it will help every web application, not just Google applications.

Adobe is on board. Senior vice-president Kevin Lynch said: 'We are very excited to be collaborating with Google to move the industry on to a standard cross-platform, cross-browser, local storage capability'.

'The Gears API will also be available in Apollo, which enables web applications to run on the desktop, providing developers with consistent offline and local database solutions.'

Even competitors are complimentary of the open source strategy.

Chief technical officer at Mozilla Corporation Brendan Eich said: 'This announcement is a significant step forward for web applications. We are pleased to see Google working with open source and open standards bodies on offline web applications.'

Is the launch of Google Gears a turning point for the software industry?

I think it very well might be. I'll certainly be glad of it the next time I'm on the red eye from JFK.



>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner at Douglas-based Strive Public Relations, a virtual communications consultancy serving the Island's tech sector.
She provides her views on business and technology, and the business of technology, each week in Tech Talk.
Visit her business blog Strive Notes for frequent updates.

www.strivepr.com