Gmail goes offline - Why it matters...
Sidin Vadukut -
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 10:49 AM
The blogosphere is abuzz with a recent announcement on the Gmail blog. After some speculation, Google has finally come out with the fact that offline access to Gmail is being rolled out to English language users of the ubiquitous communication platform in the days to come. Like most Gmail tweaks offline access needs to be activated from the Labs tab on your Gmail settings page and will use Google Gears to work:
Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears
to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to
the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you
lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and
uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the
information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and
label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading
your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed
in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a
connection.
In other words it works like your Outlook Express probably does when you are on a plane, in a hotel without wifi (boo!) and so on.
This is a thrilling development on several fronts. And even though I have never managed to get Google Gears to work for me hiccup-free on any platform, I still think that there is plenty here for people to think about. Before you pooh pooh this away as yet another geek-nerd thing here is why Gmail going offline can be a game-changer:
1. Outlook Express and Lotus Notes needs to up their game: Both those popular platforms may be decent desktop clients, but their online avatars are both terrible in comparison to Gmail's User Interface. If I was a corporate email user without significant privacy hassles I would just autoforward all my email to a dedicated Gmail account and then sync it with my desktop using Google Gears. This way I have an offline archive of my emails which is a snap to access and, most importantly, search. And of course in an interface which I am already very familiar with. And remember: even if you don't have your laptop with you, your Gmail account is still available online, always.
2. Google Apps plus Gmail Offline: Small business, educational institutions and the like have one more reason to move to the Google Apps platform. My experience with convincing people to do this has often hit two roadblocks: security and portability. Your emails sit on a Google server and two, if I am not online I can't access my email. (Which is why some people set up Gmail on Google Apps and then POP3 it out to Outlook Express.) With offline access and syncing this is no longer a hassle. Your email is online and offline in one single interface which intelligently goes online and off.
3. One more step towards a Google Operating System: Google, which already had a web-enabled back-end, is now migrating that piece by piece to a desktop front-end environment via the browser. Right now you can have documents, email and an rss feed reader accessible offline and online via Google Gears. Sounds awfully like a little operating system to me. But one where ALL the data resides on a Google server. The next big step for Google is to convince you that your data is as safe on a Google server as it is on your laptop. From Wired:
It’s one thing to trust your e-mail to Google, it’s another thing to
trust the company with the entirety of your digital life. Forget
problems of security and privacy, even the basic issue of server
downtime leaves many people cold.
And even if the fabled Google Drive does finally make an appearance soon, we are still some way away from using lithe netbooks with just a browser, little flash drives and wifi connections that tap into our vast online Google Drives checking our Gmail, editing on Google Docs, updating our Google Calendars and reading our Google Readers feeds.
It won't happen soon. But it probably will happen.
P.S. To quote a crabby, cynical CEO I knew once: "Then one day those Google bastards will ask you to pay up for everything. And then we are all dead!"