Google Bringing HTML5 To Gmail

angry tapir writes "In keeping with Google's enthusiasm for the emerging HTML5 standard, many upcoming features of the company's Gmail Web-based e-mail service will be rendered in HTML5. One feature that the Gmail design team is now working on is the ability to drag files from the desktop into the browser. Gmail will also make use of HTML5's database standards. Currently the e-mail service uses Google Gears to store mail for offline reading, but over time that will migrate to the HTML5 standards."

Comments

Apple rejects HTML5 on iPad/iPhone

[Orga]

Take THAT!

Re:Apple rejects HTML5 on iPad/iPhone

[mrsteveman1]

Hulu will blink before Apple does. Netflix for instance was (and is) using Silverlight for browser streaming, and they decided to go with HTTP streaming and a native App for the iPad and iPhone.

Re:Apple rejects HTML5 on iPad/iPhone

[QuincyDurant]

No attempt at irony goes unpunished.

Re:Apple rejects HTML5 on iPad/iPhone

[rsborg]

Hulu will blink before Apple does. Netflix for instance...

Please don't compare Hulu to Netflix. They have completely different business models, though the offer similar services.

It is completely natural for Netflix to provide a seperate channel for their subscribers (it's like adding a feature service, allowing them to distance themselves from the competition or increase/maintain their service margin).

Hulu, on the other hand, is owned and was created by the big networks as an alternative to bittorrent and iTunes/Amazon for TV shows only, and relies heavily on advertising-based revenue. This ties their hands a lot more than their reliance on Flash (although Flash is more friendly to mandatory advertising now than HTML5). The networks (rightly) fear the net and it's disruptive power to their #1 source of revenue - the advertising based model.

Re:Apple rejects HTML5 on iPad/iPhone

[Professor_UNIX]

They'd probably rather license the content to mobile providers using services like Verizon's VCAST. I recently read they went live with VCAST for Android which could explain why Hulu is blocking Android phones with Flash. No sense in letting users get something for free with ads when you can charge them for a premium service right?

Thats not new

[QuantumRiff]

One feature that the Gmail design team is now working on is the ability to drag files from the desktop into the browser

This has been working for over a month on Gmail now. its much nicer to attach files by dragging and dropping with HTML5. (chrome, in my case)

now if they would allow you to insert inline graphics...

Re:Thats not new

[LWATCDR]

"now if they would allow you to insert inline graphics"
yea that is what we need.
No thanks I wish we would go back to text only. Less chance of an exploit when you are just dealing with just text.
Attachments are fine.

Re:Thats not new

[ghee22]

There is a Gmail Lab for this feature: Inserting images by Kent T Allows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs. This lab will not work if you have offline enabled.

Re:Thats not new

[spintriae]

They demonstrated HTML5 notifications for Google Talk in Gmail at I/O this year. I've been looking forward to that feature. Please don't tell me that's been just a click away for month now. Or on second thought, please do.

Re:Thats not new

[Anonymous Coward]

"now if they would allow you to insert inline graphics" yea that is what we need. No thanks I wish we would go back to text only. Less chance of an exploit when you are just dealing with just text. Attachments are fine.

Feel free to go back to 1990--or disable rich text or HTML rendering in your client. (Hopefully they are already disabled from unknown senders by default.) The rest of us appreciate legitimate uses of HTML+CSS, including inline images, in our e-mail.

Slower and slower

[JustinRLynn]

No matter how many features they pile into gmail, no matter how flashy and pretty they make it, any time I need to actually quickly check my email or read several in new tabs, I am going to use 'basic html view'. The advanced modes are better for searching/sorting though.

Re:Slower and slower

[ghee22]

Agreed. With over 35 labs enabled, my gmail tab in the latest version of Chrome steadily increases its memory usage. I have repeatedly experienced a 300% increase in memory usage over a 4 hour period.

Re:Slower and slower

[eggled]

Increased memory usage over time is often not a memory leak, and not always a bug.

If the memory usage increases without bound and begins to conflict with other programs that are attempting to use memory, then it's a bug. Anything else may just be good caching behavior (If you can cache something to improve performance, that's better than leaving memory underutilized).

Re:Slower and slower

[Darkness404]

Well, of course. There is a reason they are called "lab" extensions, they aren't stable, they aren't guaranteed to not increase memory usage, the majority of them are to add a feature quickly, then later work on an elegant solution.

Re:Slower and slower

[ghee22]

I recall this being Firefox's defense arguement (http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/14/2154224).

I have not analyzed Gmail's code, so I am not, with confidence, to state that Gmail is increasing memory usage to cache data.

However, I have not noticed any, significant or insignificant, performance boost from Gmail at 300% memory usage at +4 hours versus Gmail at 100% memory usage at +0.25 hours. I am currently attempting to debug my issue by disabling individual labs, and comparing memory usage results after a significant time has passed with the Gmail tab open. This is by no means a proper scientific study, but I do have hope that the leaker(s) will be identified.

What competition do they have?

[radarsat1]

It amazes me how far, it seems, gmail is ahead of the competition when it comes to usability. It is the only web-based email client I have used that feels like a proper application, and works exactly as I'd like it to.

However, I know that at this point there _must_ be competition for it out there, open source or otherwise. Does anyone know other email services that offer a comparably usable interface?

Re:What competition do they have?

[darkmeridian]

I agree that Gmail is so far ahead of its webmail competition such as Yahoo and Hotmail. The biggest feature, however, is Gmail's junk filter. Nary a piece of junkmail gets into my inbox and false positives are exceedingly rare. However, it's pretty disconcerting if this success is due to their understanding of your behaviors. Haha. The Gmail interface is very quick and efficient. It loads and works quickly. I also I love how Gmail doesn't ask for confirmation but rather gives you the option to undo a delete.

Re:What competition do they have?

[PhrstBrn]

I've used Zimbra and the interface was very good. In some ways Zimbra was better than Gmail, in other ways Gmail is better.

For instance, tagging, archiving, and searching on Gmail on better, however Zimbra has a better composer, better navigation, and has contextual (right-click) menus, and tabs. Arguably the conversation view on Gmail is better than the way Zimbra does it (grouping related messages together)

Re:HTML5 "Enhanced" Sites

[VGPowerlord]

Unless your other accounts are done through Google Apps, in which case, it's sign out, find the Google Account's sign in page for the correct domain, then sign in.

Re:HTML5 "Enhanced" Sites

[RJFerret]

The simple solution I found is to use Firefox's private browsing to check another gmail account.

I can check a different account's email using "private", then easily switch back to regular and my voicemail, calendar and docs tabs haven't logged me out. (Or worse, put that other email's contacts into MY voicemail account.)

(The only liability I can imagine is not being able to directly add something to your calendar while having the email open, but you could use gCal or some other firefox plugin to get around that I'd presume.)