Benefits of using Google Gears!

  28 Jun 2007 by ReviewSaurus

Google GearsGoogle Gears is a small utility which was launched by Google as an extension for Google Reader. This utility allows you to download the posts for offline viewing and then later synchronizes them when you go online.

This can be extremely handy for those who want to check the RSS feeds while they are not connected to the internet or they may want to invest time in going through the feeds.

There are many features & benefits of using Google Gears and here are some of them :

1. Works with Internet explorer and Firefox (didn’t check any other), I think it will work with each browser which runs Google Reader.

2. Feeds work much faster as it doesn’t load up any images & doesn’t refreshes after every few minutes, thus doesn’t use up the memory of the computer regularly.

3. Shows the exact number of posts, which are unread. Due to some strange reason, Google doesn’t display the exact amount of unread posts, when in Online mode. But, when you use Google Gears then it shows you the exact number.
Google reader without gear
(Before using Google Gears)

Google Reader after using google gear
(after using Google Gears)

What other benefits do you see, when it comes to using Google gears ? Do share it in comments.

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15 Responses so far

  1. Bush Mackel June 28, 2007 11:31 am

    I guess this would be kind of cool if you hop around WiFi spots. Personally, I’m always hooked into the net so I’m not sure if this is the thing for me.

  2. reviewsaurus June 28, 2007 12:02 pm

    @ Bush : Even I stay online all the time, but believe me Google reader works faster when using Google Gears. I’ve mentioned the reason in the post, as to why it works faster.

  3. Shankar Ganesh June 28, 2007 1:35 pm

    The third point is cool :D You have a very good eye LOL kidding.

  4. Vyoma June 28, 2007 2:10 pm

    Hmmm.

    Not used it yet.

    I might do it one of these days. :)

  5. Nirmal June 28, 2007 3:08 pm

    Though I use reader, I never tried gears before. I have read about this before. Let me try, since its compatible with FX.

  6. Madhur Kapoor June 29, 2007 5:19 am

    i would use it in my hostel where net access is limited ..

  7. mik June 29, 2007 9:06 am

    The thing you have to remember is that Google tends to do only what is neccessary. In my opinion, knowing the total counts of unread, read or whatever status posts, is not neccessary and just takes up a little more time rendering.

    Fortunately, Opera has it’s own feed system that works very fast and efficiently, so I have no need for Google Reader, but good post all the same.

    P.S. Google Reader works in all major browsers that have Javascript enabled and can handle the http:request function (Opera, Firefox, Safari, IE, Netscape and Konqueror)

  8. kuanhoong June 29, 2007 9:17 am

    Tried Google gears, it is actually not bad. However it would be better if user can view RSS with pictures offline. Currently only texts are downloaded for offline viewing.

  9. reviewsaurus June 30, 2007 6:50 am

    @ Shankar : You may say that I’ve got good eye :).

    @ Vyoma & Nirmal: I think you should, it is a nice feature by Google.

    @ Madhur : That’s where it comes handy. My net connection breaks sometime and so, I make use of this service and whenever I see connection working perfectly, I just synchronize.

    @ Mik : Well, when you’ll see over 1500 unread posts every time you open your feed reader, then you’ll not say that :D. Opera is no doubt one of the good browser available on the internet

    Thanks for the information there, that it works with major browsers.

    @ Kuanhoong : Well, the idea was to make it work faster. Imagine that how much time it will take to synchronize all the posts if they start to download images too. So, it will not work faster.

    I mean you can simply star those posts which you think may be really important and you’ve got to see the pictures in it and then you’ll be able to see the images when you’ll go in the online mode.

  10. benedict herold July 1, 2007 1:25 am

    I have not tried this yet. But I’m gonna try this soon. Sounds interesting since it would be helpful to read the post when i get remote. I’m not a supporter of off line reading though; since it may make you miss the flow of making a comment on certain post!

  11. Links this Sunday — Shankar Ganesh | Tech Blog July 1, 2007 5:17 am

    [...] lists the benefits of using Google Gears Google Gears is a small utility which was launched by Google as an extension for Google Reader. [...]

  12. ReviewSaurus July 1, 2007 7:13 am

    @ Ben : Well, that’s one good point. Of course, offline reading option is not permanent. It is for those bad times, when you can’t be on the internet.\

    @ Shankar : Thanks A lot for the link back :)

  13. Ashwin July 1, 2007 8:22 am

    Are you sure that it shows the correct number of feeds that are unread?

    I’ve used Google Gears a number of times and each time, GReader in offline showed up posts that I had read and worst, the post order were screwed up.

    I had written about this in my blog some time back (http://ashwinr.com/2007/06/02/put-google-reader-on-steroids/). There are other disadvantages also, but in the end, it does the job we require. :D

  14. reviewsaurus July 2, 2007 5:35 pm

    @ Ashwin : well, if you’ve seen some wrong numbers then it may be quite possible. It does the work pretty well and we must not forget that it is right now in beta :) we can expect few flaws, can’t we?

  15. Peter Payne July 29, 2008 7:21 pm

    No images? It’s not very useful, then, is it. I do MUCH better with the offline Google Reader for iPhone. Sorry, this is a big Fail.

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