Death of Google Gears makes cloud backup harder

In a posting on the Google Gears API Blog, Aaron Boodman has officially announced the death of the Firefox and Internet Explorer plug-in that allowed users of compatible cloud apps to seamlessly store offline their cloud data.

The hand of the Gears team has been pretty much forced because of the release of Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9, both of which will not be supported by the plug-in. The good news is that the Gears code is integrated into Google Chrome and will stay there until version 12. The bad news is that, at the rate at which the Chrome team make new releases, it won't be very long until we reach Chrome 12. We came into 2011 using version 8, and versions 9 and 10 were released nearly within a month of each other.

Ultimately, we're drawn back to the issue of trust, which plagues cloud computing though most vendors choose to ignore it.