the Forty-Second Parallel

Google Gears (beta, naturally) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality. Cross platform support for Firefox 1.5+ and IE 6+. Safari support is in the works.

There's a lot of interesting work being done (and money being poured) right now in this arena — Silverlight, Apollo, Firefox 3 and now this.

If I had to guess, I'd put my money on Silverlight and Apollo coming out on top. But who knows.