Google Sets Its Sights on Web App Domination

In a presentation of its attempts to bridge over the chasm between Web-based applications and client, or native, applications, (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced alterations to its Google World 3-D mapping software system system as well as Google Gearing Wednesday at its yearly I/O software developer's conference in San Francisco.

For webmasters, Google launched its new Google World Browser Plug-In, which can be embedded within a Web site. The Internet hunt supplier also unveiled a name change, among other things -- from "Google Gears" to simply "Gears" -- for its set of offline software system development tools.

The new denomination is intended to underline the company's belief that Gearing is community-driven project, according to Vic Gundotra, frailty president of engineering, mobile and developer divisions at Google.

During his keynote address, Gundotra reportedly told the audience that the company desires to speed up the capableness of the browser.

Mapping the Browser

With the Google World API (application scheduling interface) browser plug-in, Google have taken an app that once required a download to a user's personal computer and made it available through a Web browser. The API enables Web developers to embed the 3-D mapping application into their Web pages in the same manner that they have got been able to utilize the Google Maps API.

More than 150,000 land sites have got developed applications using the Google Maps API, while the Google World client have logged more than than 400 million downloads. Releasing the Google World API, according to Google, is a presentation of its belief in the "value of being open." The hope is that developers will utilize the API to "build the adjacent great geo-based 3-D application."

Developers can embed Google World inside any Web page using a few lines of code, and an extended JavaScript API lets developers to command the photographic camera and make lines, markers and polygons. It also enables webmasters to import 3-D exemplaries from the Web and sheathing them anywhere on the planet, Alice Paul Rademacher, technical Pb of the Google World Browser Plug-in, wrote in a LatLong Blog post.

"In fact, you can even sheathing your content over different planets, stars and galaxies by toggling Sky mode, letting you construct 3-D Google Sky mashups. You can also enable 3-D augmentings with a single line of JavaScript, attach JavaScript callbacks to mouse events, bring KML (keyhole markup language) information from the Web and more," he continued.

There's a batch of chance on the manner for geo-based advertisement , according to Karsten Weide, an analyst.

"Google World is an amazing application that is well-positioned to do money out of geo ads. However, the fact that Google World was client-based greatly down audience range and traffic, both of which are jobs for advertisement sales," he told TechNewsWorld.

Integrating Google World into Web browsers rectifies that job but makes not vouch successful advertisement sales, Weide pointed out.

"That still doesn't intend that Google will be better able to sell advertisements on Google World than it currently is. So gross sales necessitate to be fixed, too," he added. Gearing Up

On the one-year anniversary of Google Gearing (now just "Gears), the hunt company gave a peep at its programs for the unfastened beginning undertaking in the approaching year.

The first twelvemonth concentrated on offline-enabled applications. However, in its pursuit to convey Web apps to the bow and "close the spread between Web apps and native apps" the company said it would pass its 2nd twelvemonth trying to work out some of the issues surrounding Web applications.

To do Gearing available to everyone, Google said that it is adding support for Firefox 3 and Campaign to its support for Internet Explorer and earlier versions of Firefox. Opera is also working to back up Gearing on the desktop and mobile devices.

Speaking of Gearing applications, announced the launch of improved functionality for its e-mail application, using the original Gearing Database API with Full Text Search. MySpace states its new mail app do searching and sorting faster and easier. Gonna Be a Rumble

With the Google World API and Gears' expanded mission, the phase is put for a conflict over Web 2.0 applications between (Nasdaq: MSFT) , Google and any other participants that come up along.

"It's as clear as twenty-four hours what's going on here. Microsoft is coming from their pilothouse and moving upstream. Google's approaching from their pilothouse and moving downstream. There's going to be an inevitable clang in the middle. There's board for both; it is not a zero-sum game," said Jonathan Edwards, a analyst.

"The writing's on the wall that at some point when Web applications go as rich as client applications that users don't desire to maintain flipping back and forth. We see this approaching down the route and these are just stairway along the way," he told TechNewsWorld.

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