When will I be able to sync my Google docs automagically into my laptop folder for offline access?

Here’s what I (and many thousands of road warriors) want Google.

I want a local cached always up to date copy of my entire Google docs set of files. I want to create a folder on my local drive and it should automagically sync with Google docs without my ever thinking about it so that whenever I get on a plane, not only can I search for it using Google desktop or Spotlight (I’m on a Mac) and see the contents, but I can open and save files into it. And even drag word/excel files into it too. And when I get back online, it should auto-sync to my Google docs folder. I’m currently in chaos with a big batch of old files on my hard drive and a batch of new files on Google docs and duplicates in both places and frankly, it’s becoming a nightmare.

Google, I have said it before and I’ll say it again. As long as you maintain your commitment to privacy and security, I’m okay with giving you my documents and I’ll pay you too. I need this functionality and so do others.

UPDATE: As I was about to post this, my friend Jonathan Lambert pointed me to this article about Google Gears – a toolkit for building offline apps. Looks like we’re on the way.