Google Brings Offline Access to Docs and Apps

Google is rolling out a much-awaited feature for its hosted applications: the ability for people to use them even when they aren’t connected to the Internet.

The first application to get this offline access will be the word processor, said Ken Norton, Google Docs product manager. “The design goal is to create a seamless experience, with or without an Internet connection,” he said.

Over the next three weeks or so, Google will turn on the feature for all word processor users, giving them the ability to view and edit documents while offline. During the same time period, Google Docs’ spreadsheet will gain offline ability for viewing, but not editing, documents.

Google Docs’ third component, an application to make slide presentations, will remain for now without offline access. However, Google has plans to extend the offline access to it and to other hosted services in the Google Apps suite, of which Docs is part. Apps also includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk and others.

“Offline access of [hosted] apps is the next step in making the Web as a whole a lot more reliable,” Norton said.

Expectation for offline access in Docs and Apps had been building since Google introduced its Gears open-source technology in May of last year. Until now, Google had only built Gears offline functionality for its Reader RSS feed manager.

By allowing Docs and Apps users to work offline, Google is addressing one of the biggest objections to Web-hosted applications. So far, offline access has required that users export their Docs files to third-party file formats, like Microsoft Office.

Gears is a browser plug-in that can store files and data locally, as well as run JavaScript applications without a server connection. It’s this architecture that will allow Docs users to work on their word processing documents if their Internet connection drops or if they’re somewhere without one, such as an airplane.

To access their Docs files offline, users need only install the Gears plug-in and type in the regular Google Docs URL: docs.google.com.

Work done offline will be automatically synchronized with the Google Docs servers when users connect to the Internet.

As an open-source technology, Gears can be used by developers outside of Google.

The offline access will be turned on “in batches” over the coming weeks in consumer Docs accounts and in the administrator consoles of Apps.

Gears is currently supported in Internet Explorer 6 and above and Firefox 1.5 and above for Windows XP and Vista, according to Google. Firefox 1.5 and above is also supported on Mac OS X 10.2 and above and Linux. Gears also runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 and above in Internet Explorer 4.01 and above.

Google Search Behind Most Phishing Sites

Three-quarters of phishing sites are built on hacked servers that have been tracked down using pre-programmed Google search terms, according to research from brand-protection firm MarkMonitor.

Among other activities, MarkMonitor tracks phishing attacks that target brand names.

Researchers compiled a list of 750 Google search terms that are used to track down websites likely to have easily exploitable vulnerabilities – mostly PHP-based sites.

The search terms return a list of sites likely to have particular vulnerabilities; the attackers then exploit the vulnerability, gain access to the site, and then use it to host malicious code or counterfeit web pages as part of the scam.

MarkMonitor found that 75 percent of the phishing sites it had discovered had been originally tracked down using one of the list of 750 Google search terms. The finding was based on a sample of one-quarter of the phishing sites logged by the firm.

The search terms, called “Google dorks”, are actively traded on internet forums, and are routinely scanned by IRC-based “bots”, which also scan Yahoo and AOL Search results, according to MarkMontitor.

Google has already made moves to block automated exploitation of the “dorks”, but they can still be used manually.

The websites exploited tend to be small, local PHP-based sites, which are less likely to have the latest patches installed, and are invaded via one of more than 1,800 known PHP bugs, MarkMonitor said.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, 412 organizations were targeted by phishing attacks, up 37 percent from the same period in 2006, according to the firm’s Brandjacking Index, published last month.

Auction sites were the biggest targets, accounting for 44 percent of the phishing emails in the fourth quarter, up from 36 percent in the first quarter of 2007.