Google Set to Debut Offline Apps

Google is readying to let users test-drive offline applications. Still in design, Google Gears will allow browsers to use locally stored copies of Google apps (like its spreadsheet), save updates, and later transfer a temporary cache to “the cloud”—Google’s servers—the next time they connect to the Net, BetaNews reports. Early adopters will get to test drive the offline versions of the applications in coming weeks.

Boasts one Mountain View engineer, “I don't have to remember to save my documents locally before packing my laptop for a trip…And I don't have to switch applications based on network connectivity.” The software, only months in the making, will free laptop users to be virtually online in places that have never known Internet connections. (More Google stories.)