Google Gears for a Social Network?

Question

I just saw that the newer wordpress (newer meaning since the last time I used wordpress 5-6 years ago and today) is using Google Gears, this seems really cool but I am not 100% sure exactly how they use it? I am working on a social network site in PHP (facebook, myspace) can you think of anything on a site like that where gears could benefit the user?

Answer 1

Gears allows for some local caching. Basically the application stores data in a local SQLite database, which allows better caching and offline usage. That means you could even work the the application when you do not have an internet connection and when you go online again, your changes are synchronized.

I'm not sure how WordPress uses it, but for a social network it could be used for example to cache private messages so that people can access them while offline (doesn't GMail or Google Reader use it for that?) or maybe the last copy of the "Live Stream"/Wall/Whatever.