Does Google Docs online use HTML5 technology or use Gears now?
2 Answers
Looking at the HTML source, the doctype declaration at docs.google.com is <!DOCTYPE html>
which indicates it is HTML 5.
Google started phasing out Gears.
As of May 2010 Google started phasing out support for offline access in Google Docs through Gears. However, they are still supporting it in order not to break anything.
The Google spokesman wrote to clarify in a follow-up e-mail, "We're continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it's a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers."
Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/11/google-gears.html
Also, Google Gears API is deprecated: http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/gears/