Google is making a move into the offline application space (you know, traditional Windows applications) by releasing Google Gears, a browser add-on that lets developers take online applications offline. The first app to take advantage of this will be Google Reader giving you the ability to catch up on your feeds and read them offline.
If you think about the potential of this tool, it moves Google into a whole new arena. Take Google Apps for example. The biggest downside with online apps (as opposed to Microsoft Office for example) is that they are only available online. If you have a flaky connection, or if you’re on the road, there’s no way to access your applications/data until you find a decent internet connection. Should be interesting to watch the market react to this one!
To be honest, I don’t use any of google’s apps other than the search tool (which I use online.) Heck, I don’t even use their feed reader.