Monday, March 17, 2008

The gBrowser is coming - disguised as Google Gears

At least this is the impression I get when I take a look at the Google Gears developer documentation , especially the wiki pages with label DesignDoc and the discussions in the contributor mailing list. Here a few examples to illustrate what I am talking about and what will hopefully soon come to any browser near you:
  • AudioAPI: Playback, Recording, Mixing and Editing of WAV, OGG and MP3 audio.
  • LocationAPI: Provides geolocation.
  • ImageManipulationAPI: mentioned in the BlobApi description.
  • OpenGL vector drawing: discussed in this thread.
Upgrading existing browsers with Javascript APIs providing HTML5-compliant functionality is much better for a healthy, accessible, easy indexable and open standards oriented near future of the web, than relying on proprietary plugins such as the flashplayer for specific functions which can' t be provided by HTML/CSS/Javascript of todays browsers.