Microsoft Launches Sync Framework

Microsoft has released an early preview of Sync Framework - a new tool which will help web developers to take their web applications and databases offline. According to ZDNet, Microsoft had been working on synchronization project for quite a while under the codename of Ibiza/Harmonica. Earlier this year, Google had released a similar browser extension called Google Gears.

Microsoft says that the framework is capable of synchronizing “any type of file including contacts, music, videos, images and settings”. Sync Framework actually goes beyond Google Gear’s capabilities by enabling various collaboration and file syncing feature along with offline support.

We’ve already seen like application Google Reader and Zoho Writer which adapted Google Gears to add offline capabilities. Google Gears clearly has a head start here, but I think Microsoft has a superior tool and requires all the love from developers to be widely accepted. The final release date of Sync Framework is not known, but developers preview is available for those interested in trying it out.