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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.
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
Personnally I'd like to use the gmail interface while offline because I think no mail client has a better interface than Gmail's one.
The conversation mode is not just a thread mode : if you archive a thread but receives an answers related to this archived thread, the whole thread will come accompanied with the received message, which gives you the context of the message while facilitating the management of your inbox. If such a feature was implemented in a mail client, I would use the mail client.
I hate all sigs, mine included.
You can tweak Evolution to do conversation mode, by creating a search folder with both your inboxes and sent folders, and then enabling threads. You can switch easily to classic folders and come back again to "a la gmail" search folder. It is really sweet.
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.
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
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!"
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.
Crontab? :o)
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 :-)
These kids nowadays. Real men telnet to port 110!
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
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), ....."
If such a feature was implemented in a mail client, I would use the mail client.
So use a client where the threading mode is configurable, and additionally gives you the ability to link threads.
I use mutt, and regularly link threads. But that's mostly to correct the errors by folks who don't understand threading, and relying on "conversations" feature of their email client, screw things up for the rest of us.
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.
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.