Google has launched a tool designed to make it easier for computer users to use online applications offline.
One of the key limitations of web services such as e-mail, word processing and calendars, is that they require a net connection to function.
Gears allows access to online data and applications inside the web browser when offline.
The tool was launched at Google"s global developer day, with 5,000 coders attending seminars worldwide.
Google Gears is an open source plug-in for browsers, which the firm hopes will lead to the creation of new web standards.
The firm wants many of the people attending its developers conference to use the Gears tools, which are free to use, to adapt their own applications for offline usage.
Using Gears, online data that is usually held on web servers can be stored offline on an individual"s computer, and then synchronised when the user logs back on to the web.