Google Adds Offline Gmail Support
Offline Gmail is real, and we're really loving the sound of it. Granted, Google is still christening the feature an "experimental" one for now, but are you really surprised? After all, Gmail itself is still stickered as "Beta." At any rate, the service works just about like you'd expect, though the complexities behind the scenes are what makes this implementation great. Once the feature is activated in your account, you can simply visit Gmail.com while no active connection is present and "get to your mail just like you're used to."
Here's a little rundown on how
everything works. Once Offline Gmail is flipped on, the service uses
the 'Gears' application (also from Google) to download a local cache of
your mail onto your machine's hard drive. So long as you stay
connected, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. Now, once
you disconnect (intentionally or otherwise), Gmail intelligently
switches to Offline mode and immediately begins to use the locally
stored cache data. Not only does this enable you to continue managing
your email (Starring, Labeling, reading and deleting functions all
remain in tact), but it prevents any partially written notes from being
forever lost due to a spotty connection. If you pen a message while
offline, Gmail simply houses it in your outbox and sends it just as
soon as a connection is restored. Also of note, Google even thought to include a "flaky connection mode," which still relies on local cache data but attempts to synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. The overriding goal was to "provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you're using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server."
Google will be rolling the service out to the aforementioned groups over the next little while, so not everyone will see the option to enable it right away. Keep an eye on your 'Settings' tab, though -- it should pop up soon. Below is a video to show you just how everything will work once it rolls to your inbox.
Comments
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Sounds cool. But my phone takes care of most of the reading and responding to email when I am way from my PC. Though it cant load the same google IU. |
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This is actually pretty interesting. I had this problem several times before where I had to access my email for some important information when I was not close to an internet connection. I was really mad when everything would load but not my email. |
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Nice ! But when are Google and Gmail going to learn that even those of us who use Gmail with other display languages than US or UK versions of English would like to have access to the interesting products of Gmail labs ? I suspect that our usage plays a large roll in that portion of Google's revenues that can be ascribed to Gmail - don't we thus deserve a chance to try these new features ?... Henri |
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