Goodbye Google Gears, Hello HTML5

We already knew Google Gears was on its way out, but Google has now basically lowered the casket into the ground. Gears powered a bunch of web apps in its day, but now Google's stopping work on it and switching to supporting its features natively in Chrome using HTML5 and other emerging web standards.

What does this mean for current Gears users? Well, support will be severely limited, but maintained until there's a way to port entire apps (including their userbases) to a standards-based approach. Some Gears APIs have already popped up natively in Chrome, which now includes geolocation and several database-related APIs.

Check out Google's blog post for the skinny on what is and isn't supported so far. If you're a developer using Gears, you can also take advantage of Google's invitation to reach out and ask questions about the future of the Gears features your apps use.

Tags: api, chrome, developer, google, google gears, GoogleGears, html5, web apps, web standards, WebApps, WebStandards