Google Gears reaches Safari (beta software)

Google has bought its open-source Gears technology to Safari, releasing a beta version of Gears for Safari earlier this week.

"We are excited to share a beta version of Gears for Safari with you!!  We would love for you to install it and test it and file bug reports so we can  polish it and find all the corner cases. ," said Google’s Jeremy Moskovich, announcing the beta software release on the Google Gears Google Group.

Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline, meaning, for example, that a user can access and work on Google Docs offline. It also improves the speed and reliability of web applications used off or online.

Google warns the software is a beta release only, and may break your browser – in fact, the company went a step further than that, warning, "Chances are it will break your browser. Please proceed with caution."

System requirements: Safari 3.1.1 on Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.3. A list of known bugs is available here, while the software itself is available for download here. The beta version will auto-update as new builds ship.

Gears already works on Firefox and Internet Explorer; Opera is working on a version for both its desktop and mobile browsers.