also @ TechSpot: Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB Review

Offline Gmail leaves Google Labs, integrated into Gmail

By

December 8, 2009, 6:09 PM EST

Slightly under a year after launch, "Offline Gmail" has matured beyond Google Labs and is now a standard Gmail feature. Google made the announcement yesterday, posting instructions to enable the tool and highlighting some of its features.

Offline Gmail has seen several recent feature additions like offline attachments and "Flaky Connection Mode" that serve to make it a true "offline" application. It is possible to read and reply to messages without an active Internet connection, similar to standalone email programs. Existing users of Offline Gmail don't have to make any changes, Google will enable it by default. Anyone else who wishes to use the feature can now find it inside Gmail proper.

Future offline web-apps from Google may not be based on Gears, HTML5 becoming favored by developers. Google's efforts toward HTML5 standardization will give them an advantage in developing offline apps -- though, hopefully they will work to provide migration paths for Gears-based software.

No tags on this story

User Comments (6)

Post a comment
lfg18
on December 8, 2009
7:31 PM
This seems like a very nice feature from Google, I think I will need to try it, another step foward to cloud computing

Reply | Quote

dhanushka83
on December 9, 2009
3:24 AM
google Offline is another Superb step of google.

Reply | Quote

dhanushka83
on December 9, 2009
3:25 AM
google Offline is another Superb step of google.

Reply | Quote

Guest
on December 9, 2009
4:03 AM
Now if only google could figure out how to do proper Contact sharing like you can do with Calendars. It's a real step backwards for companies trying to migrate from Exchange\Outlook to Google Apps. I would have expected better from the bright folks at Google.

Reply | Quote

compdata
on December 9, 2009
11:17 AM
Guest said:
Now if only google could figure out how to do proper Contact sharing like you can do with Calendars. It's a real step backwards for companies trying to migrate from Exchange\Outlook to Google Apps. I would have expected better from the bright folks at Google.
Migration is usually particularly difficult. MS knows this and makes it more difficult as well. At this point i am not sure i would recommend migration to a major company, but Google Apps are definitely something to look into for smaller companies or a company just starting up. It would certainly help with overhead costs in a case where you didn't have to worry about migration much.

Reply | Quote

Kibaruk
on December 9, 2009
3:36 PM
Amazing, I didn't realized because it was turned on by default for users who already were using the option, will uninstall gears then.

Reply | Quote

Browse more commented news

Post a new comment

Follow TechSpot

Feeds & More Newsletter