Slashdot Mirror
Offline Gmail Launched
javipas writes "Google developers have announced a new feature part of Gmail Labs that everybody was waiting to see realized. Offline Gmail will allow users to have a partial copy of its Gmail account on their PCs, and access their messages while being offline. The magic of Google Gears comes to the rescue, but the process will not be complete. The syncronization will update the online and offline copies, but Google will use an algorithm that will determine the messages downloaded on each sync (the first being the most important) based on several parameters that point out that message's relevance. This measure will save the process from downloading pieces of information not quite as valuable. US and UK English users can enjoy this feature through the Gmail Labs section."
Isn't this feature already available on Gmail through IMAP?
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
This entirely misses the point! I have this reliably working with IMAP, and for a long time. The whole point of the mobile interface is that you can use it on any machine and keep synced. This solution just creates one more, very imperfect, email client.
I've been using Thunderbird for a few years to download my gmail. What's the great news here?
Move along. Nothing to see here
sudo mount --milk --sugar
I guess it's just more Marketing bullshit.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
The difference would be that the gmail interface is different to the thunderbird interface and I happen to like the gmail one better?
Don't point that gun at him, he's an unpaid intern!
You mean Google-eyed emailers will now be able to do something which POP3 MUAs have been doing for, what, 20+ years, and IMAP for 15? How innovative of them.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
But this seems to be broken in Chrome. I can turn it on in FF, but radio switches don't render correctly in Chrome.
It's 2009. With smartphones, wireless broadband cards for laptops, and the wide availability of broadband Internet access, how often does someone use an email-capable computer that is not also connected to the Internet with one of the above connections?
Offline Gmail will still have its uses, and many power uses will no doubt enjoy this, but I think this would have been real "front page news" back when dial-up was the ubiquitous connection method.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
I'm a huge Gmail fan, but - I'll always want to keep a full backup of what I send and receive, and POP does that just fine for me & family.
FTA: "Google ruled out the option of letting users replicate their entire Gmail inboxes to their PCs, which in many cases would translate into gigabytes of data flowing to people's hard drives. It instead developed algorithms that will automatically determine which messages should be downloaded to PCs, taking into consideration a variety of factors that reflect their level of importance to the user, he said. At this point, end-users will not be able to tweak these settings manually."
So, urm, no thanks!
Google releases new tool to find text inside a document, offline, without having to resort to finding that document online and searching through it with google.
Still surprised about the novelty of such a new development in computer science as a whole, tens of users are already planning to use it soon.
Some reviews from the betatesters:
"What?" - Billy.
"Que?" - Juan.
"300G for $1" - Chinese WoW farmer.
s/syncronization/synchronization/
My various print dictionaries do not have any words with the prefix syncro- ,
nor anything related starting with cron-. Think chronology, chronograph, etc.
Don't mess with The Phone Company. Piss them off and you'll be using two tin cans and a piece of string.
I hope it also supports WHATWG-style offline apps. I don't much fancy installing Gears just to get something my browser already has.
I really love Yahoo Mail's calendar option. It scrolls below the text composing area with important world events and also includes the user's own input. To me, this is better than Gmail's calendar implementation.
Is there a GreaseMonkey script to change this?
Why offline GMail? The interface. I love the GMail interface and far prefer it to any mail client I've ever used. (I heard Eudora was going to do an upgrade on Thunderbird, and I'm looking forward to trying it because those were my previous favorites for interface and stability, respectively.)
It sounds like I won't have access to -all- my mail, though, and that's not acceptable.
Someone else pointed out that smartphones and nearly ubiquitous internet connections are making 'offline email' less and less of a problem, though. Since I finally bought a G1, I have to agree. The interface on it is good enough that I don't feel the need to walk to a computer to check my mail now.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
What I really want is to be able to use Gmail as a offline client for multiple IMAP boxes - not just to download my imap messages to Google's servers. It's a step in the right direction, but until it can do everything a normal offline client like Thunderbird or Outlook can do, it's just not quite there yet.
While you can use Outlook or Mail.app or Thunderbird to access your GMail via POP3 or IMAP, that's not the point. After all, if you're only going to be using Outlook to get it, why not use Hotmail via the Outlook Connector that synchronizes your email, calendar, and contacts better than Gmail IMAP and Calendar Sync does?
:mailto links.
No, the important development here is that now, you don't need an email client. Ever. again. Install Gears, and you can access GMail even when you're on a train or a flight. Moreover, you can set it up as a launchable application from your desktop using Prism, install GMail Notifier, and have the Notifier use Prism as the default "browser" to launch for
The reason most (if not all of us) switched to and stayed with GMail in the first place back in 2004 and 2005 was the interface. Sure, it gave you a ton of storage space compared to Hotmail and Yahoo, but they've since caught up. What Microsoft and Yahoo haven't matched since then is the interface. Show a user IMAP through Thunderbird and Gmail side-by-side and see what interface they prefer.
Also, for businesses that have switched to Google Apps, this provides assurance that critical email correspondence can be accessed even during network or Gmail outages. That's a huge bullet point that Google can use when trying to convince people to adopt their Apps for Domain.
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
I have Offline gmail since long now, thanks to IMAP4 and the "disconnected IMAP" by KMail.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Just looked in labs. No option for me. Must be rolling it out in waves or something.
It seems like people are missing the point. Yes there are many clients available to download your email to your local machine. The important part is that you now have a client that blurs the lines between desktop applications and web based applications. Yes I know it's been done before, but not in an application as ubiquitous as Gmail. Occasionally connected applications like this are a step to all those buzz words people keep throwing around like cloud computing and death of the desktop.
seriously, you can get wifi on planes now. 3g on your phone ... I use google reader on the train on the way to work, and use gchat on the train on the way home. It's easy to be connected.
Favorite email client + IMAP = done Favorite email client + POP3 = done
http://www.CelloFourteGroupie.net
Why is this "redundant"? I don't have this option in Google Labs yet either, yet its apparently available for US and UK customers, its not available for me.
The two arguments against this seem to be (1) people rarely are offline, and (2) IMAP and POP already do this.
Well, if you put those two together, you know why this is a good thing: Gmail+Gears is good for people who are out of touch a few times a year (airplane etc.) and don't want the hassle of setting up a separate mail client and the bother of learning two different mail clients.
And a hassle it is. Right now, I use Thunderbird for off-line access, and I use it so rarely that on the few occasions I start it up, things usually take forever to sync and nothing works quite right.
I use GData APIs to backup my Google docs and about once a week use POP3 to locally backup my Gmail. I require/want data formats that are open and easy to process with Ruby scripts, etc. I export my Google docs in OpenOffice.org format (check!). POP3 mailbox data is easy to process (check!).
How easy it is to access Gears local data? Is the file format well documented? (Why look it up when I can ask Slashdot :-)
Must not be fully rolled out yet. I looked in the "Labs" section and it's not there yet. Yes, I'm a US user.
So the GOOG gives a wink-wink to network intrusion: ".....And if you're on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you're "borrowing" your neighbor's wireless), ....."
Google has been working closely with Ninnle Labs on this, and the next release of Ninnle Office, soon to be in beta, will sport a module of this, appropriately titled NinnleMail.
Nice, but it still doesn't compare to an Exchange Server, which are impressively cheap through hosting companies.
this has existed for ever, in gmail they simply had to reinvent it cause they got rid of it with their web interface.
WOW
</sarcasm\%rt;
I agree with the sentiment "always want to keep a full backup of what I send and receive".
That said offline access != backup. On my home Mac, I keep Mail.app + Time Machine running so that I always have a backup of my GMail-based messages.
What this provides, however, is a method of using the application, within the context of the GMail UI, when my internet connection is down. I prefer the GMail UI to any desktop-based email client. (Many will disagree on this, but I am astounded at how bad "modern" desktop email clients are at managing large volumes of email.)
This measure will save the process from downloading pieces of information not quite valuable.
That's all well and good, but who's going to save me from reading Slashdot summaries not quite grammatical?
When you're in an airplane? When you're visiting your parents, who still only have crappy dialup service? When you're visiting someone else's office, and you can't get into their wired network, the 3g network is too weak (or you don't have an air card, as I don't), and they don't have a wireless network available to you (our building has coverage only in certain areas)?
This capability definitely has some uses.
So you expect everyone in the world to even know what "POP3" is? That's what I get paid for. Other people get paid simply to use their computers for specific tasks, or they don't get paid and simply use them for communication and entertainment. They don't have to be computer experts. What they need are systems that are smart enough to configure themselves! Get to work! Forget all this cosmetic crap (Aero, et al) and start developing operating systems with real intelligence and utility. Start by eliminating the keyboard and mouse. And quit complaining about users. They pay plenty good for what I know how to do.
Why is it so hard to setup pop3/imap and whats up with this obsession about the interface ?
I mean, I have no idea how to setup outlook mail right now. But as soon as I start the app, it's intuitive, and it's created that way... so 'users' can set up their mail accounts easily.
You have username, password, pop3/imap server, smtp server, and in most cases it's mail.domain.com. That's it. Eventually smtp auth, or pop3-before-smtp.
And besides that, if you 'know' how to setup one mail client, you know all of them.
People who _can't setup_ mail clients should not get a job working on a computer. Either learn (it's fscking 5 minute learn process...) or you don't get your job, because you'r too stupid to work on a computer, and you will probably mess everything up all the time.
And the interface... all this talk about how good interface of gmail is sick. Fuck the interface. All I need is to send mail, receive mail, to have local and server copy of the mail, and to have standard set of features, all mail clients have.
And I almost forgot ... IMAP has (as people mentioned above) this option. Your client downloads mail to your comp, and leaves a copy on the server. So you can browse your mail in 'offline mode'.
Microsoft Outlook
Google also announced their *off*-offline mail. But first they have to find somebody to print the stamps.
And a hassle it is. Right now, I use Thunderbird for off-line access, and I use it so rarely that on the few occasions I start it up, things usually take forever to sync and nothing works quite right.
I think that's more a function of the fact that Thunderbird v2 is a horrid IMAP client. Yet it's still a major step above Outlook over IMAP.
(I fight with Thunderbird on a weekly basis, using it as an IMAP client. It's near hopeless if a folder has more then a few thousand messages because Thunderbird constantly corrupts its index and then has to re-download everything.)
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
Is that some kind of advanced troll? Unless there's an interface option I've missed, gmail is hardly cutting edge when it comes to web interfaces. If I want to read a message in a new window, I have to open it, then find the little icon, then click it. Why can't I just double-click on a message to open it in its own window? And why can't I collapse my folders? Sorry. Labels. Or stretch the folder...label window a bit so I can read the frickin' names? Or drag message into folders? Where's the context sensitive right-clicking? This is all incredibly basic stuff I've seen in other webmail clients.
At best, I'd rate gmail's interface as "adequate". It'll work in a pinch but I'd rather use just about any standalone client.
Even if it were easy to set up clients, I simply do not want a client. I use several computers, and I would have to configure each client to my liking: plug-ins, rules, highlighting, address book, etc.
I just want web-based E-mail, but I also want it off-line. The GMail/Gears combo gives me that. I'm probably not alone.
Well, Thunderbird may be horrid, but others are even worse in my experience: Evolution, Outlook, etc.
You get paid to know what POP3 is? That makes you a computer expert? Fucking hell, what is the world coming to?
Outside of Googlifying this with Gears, using IMAP with my Outlook or Thunderbird solved my offline GMail problem. Connect back to the network, sync and good to go. Nothing new here
This algorithm is what intrigues me about this, because I DON'T want a full copy of my mailbox on my laptop. I've saved all sorts of crap there that I'd probably delete if I had the time to go through it, and while it doesn't bother me sitting on Google's servers, it would take up room on my antiquated hard drive. If this program can maintain a set of my most recent email, it sounds good to me.
I can't seem to access Gmail its offline :(
Back when your ISP was the most likely provider of your email, and it was always POP3 or IMAP, it was common for your ISP to provide your imap and pop3 login details as important information with your connection, right along side the number to dial, and the dialup login details.
On the other hand, webmail providers have not been at all clear that you can even use a mail client, much less how.
I blame the webmail providers for deliberately trying to lock people into their slow, technologically inferior, advert-laden webpages.
Start by eliminating keyboard and mouse? And replace them with what? There are few other input devices that are as comfortable to use, and that allow you to input data faster (by hand, that is). The next huge jump would have to be a brain-computer interface or something, and I don't know how much I need another hole in my head.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The longer I live the more I see people reinventing the wheel, usually to huge media fanfares. This time Google reinvents the POP3 email client.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
One comment for those who've said "I like the Gmail interface": You're all fucking sick.
--
Anonymous Pine User.
It would be nice if offline Gmail allowed you to choose to back up the whole account if you so desired, though.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've always been a big fan of IMAP. I switched to Fastmail in 2006 because GMail lacked IMAP support and now I've switched back since Gmail supports it.
Now that they've made this move to create offline Gmail, I'm really struggling to see why I should continue bothering with an external email client (I use Thunderbird).
All the email clients I know of (although of course I could be very wrong) archive with folders, which is at odds with Gmail's labels feature. And labels are superior because you can quickly assign more than one without a problem.
And now that Google Chrome has come along with its application shortcut function, which pares down all of the clutter and presents Gmail like a stand alone application, well, things aren't looking good for Thunderbird...
Why is this "redundant"? I don't have this option in Google Labs yet either, yet its apparently available for US and UK customers, its not available for me.
It mysteriously appeared today... Suspicious.
Voice!!! Jeepers! We should never have to physically touch a computer ever again.