Harael Links: Google Gears and the rest...

How Google Gears Will Change Your Life [Dumb Little Man]
As you might have noticed, I'm a little excited for Google Gears' release. Looks like I'm not the only one. Leo at dumb little man blog has a complete post on how it is going to change our lives.

RIA: What is it good for? [Read/Write Web]
In a more "scientific" post, R/W Web looks at the 3 main RIA (Rich Internet Application) frameworks, namely Adobe Apollo, Microsoft Silverlight and Google Gears. Just in case you're wondering, RIAs "typically: a) run in a Web browser, or do not require software installation, b) run locally in a secure environment called a sandbox, c) can be "occasionally connected" wandering in and out of hot-spots or from office to office." R/W Web questions what do we need such apps for in a world where we increasingly have always-on connections. I don't agree. I guess that we're still far away from being always-on (with internet, at least) and I don't even think that that may be desirable for some people. I think that these apps are indeed a huge step towards making the net more useful (and Google even more powerful).

Tutorial: Automator Basics [MacApper]
If you got a Mac you definitely want to read this...

Mahalo Search Engine launches
Mahalo is the new search engine from Jason Calacanis. While this really reminds me of the very first Yahoo with a drop of Web 2.0 and cool design, it seems I'm totally wrong as usual.

47% think Google should be investigated for antitrust [R/W Web]
Speaking of Google power, R/W Web asked its readers whether Google had to be investigated for antitrust following DoubleClick acquisition. a stunning 47% said Yes. Good old FOG...

Screencast-O-Matic brings screencast creation to the web browser [TechCrunch]
This really seems to be a nice app with a cool name...

My link blog
Ok this is auto-referentiating, but there's really a lot of interesting stuff there. Have a look if you like!

Bonus Link: TechCrunch Games
Finally if you have time to waste, TechCrunch is generous enough to share some good strategic games to play online, for free: Weewar (still in private beta), Kdice and Desktop Tower Defence. I'm more of an arcade gamer when it comes to online games, so I dare to suggest my beloved line rider!