See also: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=17443

In addition, if I go to the gears download page, I get directed to install the firefox XPI extension in my browser, which obviously won't work.

What's going on here? Why can't I use offline gmail et al with google's own browser? :-(

http://gears.google.com/

System requirements

* Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
* Firefox 1.5+
* Internet Explorer 6.0+
* Chrome (pre-installed)

* Linux (details)
* 32-bit OS (64-bit not supported)
* Firefox 1.5+
* Chrome for Linux is not supported   <========

Also, in http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=17443

"Current plan is to skip Gears (...) within Chrome".

HTH