Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Google, Mozilla, Freeware, Browser Tips, Browsers, Web
Unofficial Google Gears builds work in Firefox 3.5
by Jason Clarke Jul 10th 2009 at 9:00AM
If, like me, you've become fairly reliant on Google Gears, the browser plug-in from Google that allows sites to save data for offline access, the release of Firefox 3.5 is probably frustrating you. For some reason, Google isn't on the ball, even though the impending Firefox release was available for aeons in beta.
Luckily, for those of you that are brave (or dumb) enough to install an unofficial version of the Google Gears Firefox extension, you can get your Google Gears goodness going in Firefox 3.5 right now. Lifehacker points us to the unofficial Gears download locations for Windows & Linux, and Mac OS X (Intel only), but had only tested the Windows version at the time they posted about it. I can report that I'm dumb enough to install an unofficial Gears build, and it has so far worked flawlessly on my Mac. I use Gears regularly with Gmail, GCal, GReader, and WordPress, and all are working as expected.
Hopefully Google will hurry up and release an official Gears release for Firefox 3.5, but for now I've got a solution that works. Do you use Gears? If so, do you rely on it? What sites do you use it with?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
panoptican said 12:03PM on 7-10-2009
WordPress has been killing me without Gears. I have a pretty old computer that's always connected so I'm less interested in the offline component (besides, Gears-enabled Gmail does not play nice with an Inspiron 1100) than I am in the turbo loading offered by WordPress. Wish more sites would use Gears in this manner.
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The_Doc said 1:46PM on 7-10-2009
The Windows version has a bug so that if you click on the 'Advanced' tab in the options with the unofficial gears installed, your browser crashes.
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Parsifal32 said 2:46PM on 7-11-2009
It does not work in Firefox 3.5, it's not compatible
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ninja_in_pajamas said 8:39PM on 7-10-2009
Why not do this the EASY way? Tell 3.5 to use your 3.1 add ons til they update. Just gotta add a couple things in about config and it works perfectly.
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Malteserr said 9:20PM on 7-10-2009
Tried that last time and I don't think it works on Google Gears unfortunately :( I didn't mess with about:config though, just used the Nightly Tester Tools to override
Tony said 9:25PM on 7-10-2009
Hmmm...I've never used the nightly tester tools, though I heard they do the same thing for the most part. I just know that going the about config route made everything work for me. The only minor issue I get is when restoring tabs. A box pops up and I click try again and everything works after that.
ninja_in_pajamas said 9:41PM on 7-10-2009
Gyaaaaa!!! Why did my name change?! Oh well...whatever.
shaam said 10:43AM on 7-14-2009
After I installed the unofficial Google Gears update to make it work with FF 3.5, the Gmail Manager add on stopped working. Has anybody else had this problem? Is there a work around? I need some help, if possible.
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Nicole said 2:57PM on 7-21-2009
I'm so glad I came across this article, I use gears for WordPress and Google apps. The install seems to be working fine for me.
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