Google Gears to enable offline Gmail

Google 'Gears' to enable offline Gmail

The feature is designed for users who do not have constant access to Internet

Thursday, January 29, 2009

BANGALORE, INDIA: Just imagine you accessing your email offline. Sound bit weird! But search giant Google is setting its foot on such an ambitious project - to roll out offline access of Gmail.

The feature is designed for users who do not have constant access to Internet, but still want to manage their e-mail browsing, said the official blog of Gmail.

“Today we're starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs that should help fill in those gaps: offline Gmail. So even if you're offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you're used to” it said on Tuesday.

For this feature, Gmail would use Gears to download the local cache of mail. The cache is synchronized with Gmail servers, while a person is connected to the network.

When the connection is lost, it automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network.

The messages which are sent during offline will be stored in out box and automatically sent next time while the network gets connected.

Otherwise, most of the things which is done online, can also be done with offline Gmail, the blog said. If the connection is too slow then there is an option of flaky connection mode, which uses the local cache as if when disconnected, but still synchronizes mail with the server in the background.

“Our goal is 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,” said the blog.

Offline Gmail will be available for users in US and UK within couple of days, it added. The company highlights that the offline Gmail is still an experimental feature and may face some mishaps that needs to be solved.

©CyberMedia News