Gmail goes offline

Gmail goes offline

Mountain View (CA) - Google has been playing with Gears technology for couple of years now, having leveraged its potential to harness offline functionality in its web applications such as Reader and Google Docs. The welcomed addition became an instant hit in these applications since it keeps users in sync with their online content when they need it most - offline. For instance, Google Docs users can continue working on documents they keep up in the cloud even when their network connection goes down. It will automatically sync changes made in offline mode the next time they're online. What most users wanted though, is an offline mode in Gmail so their account would be at their disposal while in offline mode, including the ability to read messages and reply to them.

After months of experimenting and anticipation, Google finally feels confident enough to release offline GMail feature into the wild. Offline mode should help fill in those gaps when you don't have Internet connection but still need access to your messages, such as during commuting or flights. Offline mode means you can point your browser to gmail.com and get to your mail just like you're used to. "Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there's one little catch: it's inherently limited by your internet connection," says Google.

With offline mode, a local cache of messages in your Gmail account are downloaded to your computer. As long as you're connected to the Internet, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers.