Gears is Gone, Kind Of.

In the competition with Microsoft and Apple for the next generation of computing (a mobile generation, as Robert X. Cringely reminds us), Google seems to be willing to compromise on means as long as the ends are the same. For them web equals win, which is why switching from Gears to HTML5 is only a tactical change not a strategic one. Whatever pushes the capabilities and ubiquity of the Internet forward fastest is what will benefit their shareholders, employees, and ideological agenda most.