Search engine giant Google has announced the end for Gears, formerly Google Gears, the web browser plug-in that let users store cloud data offline.

In a post on the Gears API blog, the company said that it had managed to replicate almost all of Gears functionality on the HTML5 standard. The Gears team have been working alongside other browser developers and bodies to define and standardise HTML5 features for all browsers.

The company, which started shifting its focus from Gears to HTML5 last February, stated that Gears will not receive updates and new web browsers like Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 will not be supported by the platform.

More: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/03/16/google-says-farewell-gears-project/