An Update Mechanism for the Web, or N + 1

Alex Russell recently had a great post called "Progress is N+1". An excerpt:

So as webdevs, we must be canny enough to find a way to [do] "better" which doesn't put all of our eggs in any particular basket. Every browser that we depend on either needs an open development process or it needs to have a public plan for N+1. The goal is to ensure that the market knows that there is momentum and a vehicle+timeline for progress. When that's not possible or available, it becomes incumbent on us to support alternate schemes to rev the web faster. Google Gears is our best hope for this right now, and at the same time as we’re encouraging browser venders to do the right thing, we should also be championing the small, brave Open Source team that is bringing us a viable Plan B. Every webdev should be building Gear-specific features into their app today, not because Gears is the only way to get something in an app, but because in lieu of a real roadmap from Microsoft, Gears is our best chance at getting great things into the fabric of the web faster. If the IE team doesn't produce a roadmap, we'll be staring down a long flush-out cycle to replace it with other browsers. The genius of Gears is that it can augment existing browsers instead of replacing them wholesale. Gears targets the platform/product split and gives us a platform story even when we're neglected by the browser vendors.

Gears has an open product development process, an auto-upgrade plan, and a plan for N+1.

I posted a comment there that I want to replicate:

Alex, great post. This is why I joined Google and the Gears team. I believe in the open web and see Gears as a very clever solution to help get us out of the impasse we are all in as web devs. I'd like to look back five years from now and see how we, as a community, constructed an open source update mechanism for the web that cuts cross-browser and cross-platform, giving us leverage to move the web forward and rev it much faster than we have now. Gears is the closest to this we have today. As we say in open source, code rules, so drop on by Gears and contribute Gears modules that make this happen (http://gears.google.com). Want to see better 2D vector graphics show up cross browser that you can use today? Bake one into Gears.

Just in case you don't know about Gears or what it has today here's some more info:

Gears is an open source plug-in that teaches current web browsers new tricks. Gears is a clever way to raise the bar cross-browser and cross-platform, today, running inside of Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. No more waiting years for features to show up across all browsers and platforms. APIs include: A real embedded relational database (SQLite) for web sites; client-side full text search; threads for JavaScript; offline web applications; secure and fast cross-domain mashups; desktop shortcuts; mobile devices; and more.

I would add to the comment above and say that Gears, if we can get it embraced by the web dev community itself, means we can finally be in charge of our own destiny! Lets get an update channel into the web itself, vetted by the users and developers of the web itself.