Gmail Offline Is Back: Should You Care?

Happy day! The long expect is over and Google has finally delivered a fashio for you to sync and access your Gmail offline–with Google Calendar and Google Docs to follow soon. Users who rely solely on Web-settled tools are at a disadvantage when there is no Cyberspace connexion available. Of course, well-nig Gmail users don't cause to depend on the Web to get email.

If you are an avid or long term Gmail user you may remember that once upon a fourth dimension Google had an offline solution for the WWW-based email service. That solution was Google Gears, just Google pulled the plug on Gears in wee 2010 to cente an HTML5 solution instead. I don't cogitate anyone foretold it would take 18 months for the raw offline tool to emerge, just now it is here.

Gmail envelope icon — There are already plenty of ways to get offline access to Gmail.

Are you frantic? Have you been apprehensively anticipating this day? You shouldn't have. I'm not saying that having access to Gmail (or Google Docs or Google Calendar) when at that place is no Cyberspace connective available isn't a great things, but–unless you are using a Chromebook–you already have options for running with Google services offline.

To be honest, I barely noticed that Google killed Google Gears. Granted, my Gmail account is not my primary netmail, and I am not a dedicated Gmail exploiter–only, even if I were I would have raise some sort of client software for offline access.

My Gmail is set up as an account within Microsoft Outlook and my email is downloaded and stored in my Inbox wish totally the rest of my email. I realize that many Gmail users may non have Outlook, but there are strange email applications like Mozilla's Thunderbird that can attain the same thing.

When it comes to email on the fail, I have my iPhone 4 and my iPad 2. iOS offers Gmail as i of the options when background up an netmail account. Google takes IT a ill-trea farther, though, with instructions for mount rising Gmail as an Exchange accounting. Exploitation Exchange Active Sync enables my iPhone and iPad to sync not only my Gmail, but my Calendar and Contacts as substantially.

Unless you are part of the 15 percent that uses the Chromium-plate browser, the new solution won't work for you anyway. Chrome is non my preferred browser, so I think I'll fitting adhere getting my offline Gmail in Outlook…and on my iPhone…and connected my iPad–just care I take in been doing since before Google killed Gears.

As for Docs, the new tool is still Chrome-centric and only allows for viewing Documents and Spreadsheets. You can't actually make over Oregon edit files, thusly the functionality is very limited. There are already tools and services like Syncplicity, or SyncDocs that do the same thing, but with more than features and flexibility.

Only, if you are victimization a Chromebook, operating room Chrome is your browser of choice, I guess there is at any rate some reason to care about the new Google tool around.