Until today, one of the biggest drawbacks of Gmail is that you could not go through your emails when you were offline. Today, that changes. Gmail is finally going offline. Google is rolling out a Google Gears version of Gmail that will be available to users starting today in Gmail Labs. (If you don’t see it, keep checking, the rollout to all users should be complete by the end of the week).
After installing the Google Gears plug-in to your browser, Gmail detects when you are offline. It caches your e-mail so that you can read it, respond to it, search it, star it, or label it. When you are connected to the Internet again, it sends all the messages. You can even open attachments. This is exactly the way Gmail already works on mobile phones such as the Android and those that support Gears. In fact, according to Gmail product manager Todd Jackson, who briefed me earlier today:
The underlying sync engine is exactly the same for Android and offline Gmail.
Some features, however, won’t work. Anything that requires an Internet connection, such as spellcheck, won’t work offline. And while you can open attachments, you won’t be able to add attachments at launch (that feature will be added soon, however).
Google Gears is a key part of the company’s Web app strategy. An Gears version of Google Docs was introduced in March, 2008. And an offline version of Google Calendar will soon be offered to enterprise customers. Jackson explains:
Our long term vision is that the browser is the ideal platform for deploying all types of applications. We think the most powerful applications should run inside the browser. Historically it has been constrained by the connection.
Throw off those chains, Gmail users.
About time! Great news….
Twitter and Google are going to own in 2009.
YES YES YES AHHHH!!
Let’s try it! I hope it’s awesome!
Nice. This is gonna help when trying to convince folks like my friends and family to use Gmail over Outlook.
Cheers.
Huh. I guess the two people above me are happy about this. But I honestly can’t think of one instance in the past four years when I sat down at a computer that wasn’t online.
/shrug
When’s the last time you were on an airplane?
Exactly. This is going to make my flights so much better. Also, who does not want a copy of their mail? Better to have it on file and not just floating about in the cloud.
I guess you don’t own a laptop…
@freejose I agree, even if I did want to use a PC offline (which is never), I can’t see why I would need an email program if I wasnt connected. It seems a little bizarre.
I don’t understand why people keep saying this… Gmail has had POP/IMAP access for the longest time! That’s how your email from your ISP is done too – no one says that My-Local-ISP doesn’t have an offline version, why put Gmail to a different standard? My-Local-ISP doesn’t make an email client either.
POP/IMAP access doesn’t mean squat to my Parents, or even my friends.
It’s changing a basic fundamental perception. You can now just use Gmail.
I’m not sure Google Gears will mean anything to your parents either.
In anycase, the push to take online apps offline is coming at a time when everyone is connected just about all the time.
I could be wrong, but this movement seems like a waste of otherwise good resources.
@Stu Andrews
Go to GMail, click Help, read.
Great enhancement!
We think the most powerful applications should run inside the browser.
I’m not sure I want 3ds max or the Adobe CS running in Chrome. Sorry guys. . .
So cool! Google, pls hurry on up on the Mac-version!
Spyware coders will find now find one great source to extract email addresses. Wonder how security has been taken into consideration in the way that google will store emails on your local machine.
Gears uses SQLite databases, which are similar to a stripped back version of MySQL, so I’d assume it supports MD5 and/or something like BlowFish which is encryption with a hash so they’d be fairly safe…
Nice…
Traveling won’t be as much of a pain now!
What about Google Apps users? Ugh.
http://googleen...gmail-labs.html
Finally Gmail got what I have been waiting for since Gears was announced. Great news!
Even when not traveling, offline GMail is a great way to speed up the usage of GMail for low bandwidth (or high latency) environments.
Wow, I was just looking for this feature today, and I came across this post! I’m going to be needing GMail at some times later this weekend when my internet connection will be iffy, at best. I already use Thunderbird, but I do prefer GMail’s web layout. This has been a while coming.
nice, big enhancement!
Yes. it was about time. thank you Google.
Google Apps users usually gets new features several months after the free users get theirs. Just be patient!
Amazing! If only Knuth could appreciate this progress in computer science and software engineering! May be in volume 7 he can write about Web Browsers, DOM and AJAX… he can even drop its MMIX and rewrote all his books using Javascript, the real assembler of the Web!
That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Joke or not, this comment makes me want to turn off my computer forever and never look back.
too bad gears doesn’t work with firefox 3.1 beta 2 right now…
Hmmm… sounds like Google is building a GVM that utilizes the browser for rendering.
How is Google Gears any different than having a thick client app except that the rendering engine is your browser and HTML is the markup language?
Can anyone say “reinventing the wheel” using different rubber?
OK, I concede that when you’re online it’s probably lighter weight… but what kind of performance overhead does GGears add to your browser experience when you’re online? When you’re offline, it can’t be much different than a standard thick client.
man.. this is killer move, final nail on outlook’s coffin
I find your comment to be somewhat naive.
Outlook and Exchange have their *many* drawbacks, but to think that corporations are going to quickly move to a SAAS model b/c GMail can suddenly handle offline content is absurd.
Do you think the security teams of every financial, pharma, government agency, or other company with a large amount of IP or privacy concerns is going to start using hosted GMail? Such a silly notion.
I’m not saying this won’t detract from Exchange/Outlook’s market share but to think it’s a killer is just not logical.
Second u Paul!
Great! I want to try it as soon as is available on Google Apps.
Agree with freejose… this techcrunch is full of crap and full with people who are brainwashed with apple and google…
if tomorrow these 2 companies come with SHIT… the same folks here would say “cool… this SHIT is good….”
Grow up guys….!
Right on, Don!
Google has stopped being trendy. Gmail beta was fun. Google Docs are fun, particuarly beta (is it still in beta?) but the bottom line is everything Google is not the best nor is everything Apple or MSFT or Red Hat.
People need to start evaluating products more properly on the products’ quality and applicability rather than the brand that produced it.
Gmail is still in “beta”.
I’ve been using Gmail for some time now (2 years+) and I’m starting to question my judgment in doing so.
Would you purchase a product that remained in “beta” for this long? I think the “beta” angle is losing it’s cleverness.
I just picked up some Google SHIT, and it doesn’t stink!
great!
I love gmail!!
really good news !!!
The best thing about this is that it should speed up the online version also. Now Gmail will load instantly and the caching of new emails will be improved. Click and your Gmails are there instantly. Including your full archive can be instantly searchable locally. No more multi-hundred-ms ping delays between your Gmail clicks.
No more animated AJAX progress bar when you load your Gmail. It’ll just be there with your latest loaded Gmail and new messages pop into the top of the list as they load.
it is a great product
Reading Gmail offline, that’s great feature .
Cool! i liked it!
Gears it’s not supported in 64 bits linux, like the old flash plugin
I wish if this could come to other countries soon. India specially.
Sorry, but the title is very confusing. It sounds more like Google is taking the services down, not improving them.
It should have been “Gmail Adds Offline-Support On Gears Platform”, sounds much cleaner.
Definitely good news, but I’m still waiting for better sort functionality on gmail.
I am excited for this change. I use Google Apps though, and it usually takes a while to show up in my account.
My wish list is being able to annotate messages or edit the subjects. Right now I email a reply to myself if there is something I need to remember. It works, but not always ideal.
This will make things much more better
I love Google !!
Definitely a great tool for students, professors and professionals. Something Microsoft has been trying to deliver for a last couple of years. But Google seems to have nailed it.
Anyone have any guesses as to how this will work if you have multiple Gmail accounts being used on a single computer?
Or if I have a Gmail account and an App account that I’d like to have both run offline on the same computer?
Yes..
Thats great news by Google today.
Now… I am waiting for GDrive to arrive in 2009
Keep it up Google
My god. This feature is so great.
Our web development customers will now ask us to integrate google gears in their applications
Well more money for companies, more confusion for programmers
This is great news. Let’s try it.
What I need more than this is the utility of disposable addresses. Till then, YahooMail will be my prime e-mail address.
Is it me, or is Gears downloading the entire 2652 MB (24′567 emails) to my computer…?
Frankly don’t see what all the fuss is about.
I was curious to see how “secure” my offline Gmail would be. After digging into it a bit I wrote up a post about it on my site: http://www.paul...l-is-it-secure/
This doesn’t seem to work if you access multiple accounts from the same computer. Am I missing something?
Nope, same problem here. When logging in to another account the page simply reloads 2-3 times a second but never completes the login
Gmail Fail Cartoon
http://www.pcdi...rld-ending.html
When can I use this feature? Live in Stockholm, Sweden.
It seems like Google launches features not for all over the world at the same time.
Staffan