Web-based applications like the ones Google is developing are appealing because they are cross-platform, cross-computers and requires no installation. On the flip side, being web apps, these require constant connectivity. I always thought this is what prevents a wider and more serious adoption of web-based office applications we’ve seen so far.

So when I read about Google Gears yesterday, I was floored. I see this as a great strategic move by the company. Google Gears is a browser plugin enabling web applications to work off line. This addresses the biggest downside with online apps: connectivity. I think if the company pulls it off, Google Gears can pretty much negate the notion that Google apps aren’t suitable for serious usage. I think Google also did a very smart thing, making Google Gears open source– earning them mucho brownie points with the developer community.

How does this impact Microsoft? At best for Microsoft, this will not make a large dent in their Office revenue in the short term (nobody in the right mind would expect Office get displaced readily given its dominant market share). At worst, this signals a significant encroachment of the web onto the traditional desktop. The ramifications are difficult to speculate, but I can easily see a serious challenge to Redmond’s dominance on the desktop.

This might be a milestone product for Google and I suspect platform technologies like this keep Bill up at night.