Comments on: Google (finally) brings Gmail and Calendar offline

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:45:18 +0000

Good point, though I would argue that you probably *want* to access some attachments.

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:45:06 +0000

To be honest, I can't recall whether the “one of the biggest technical deficiencies” phrasing was my own or my editors, but certainly when I talk to my few acquaintances who haven't jumped on the Gmail bandwagon, the lack of offline access was the primary concern.

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:42:44 +0000

I think you'll probably destroy all the civilized planets, but that's a small price to pay for Gmail offline.

By: Citizento

Citizento — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:04:34 +0000

You don't have offline access with Fluid, it's just a site specific browser. You have offline access with iCal synchroinization.

By: Craig Baker

Craig Baker — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:04:01 +0000

Yeah was thinking the same thing. I have offline gmail in Thunderbird and my android gmail app.

While the offline gmail on the web is nice, it is hardly a revolution. The author calls this the “biggest technical deficiencies remaining in Gmail”, I completely disagree. Offline is a nice to have but is not a huge priority in a world which has increasingly always available internet connection

By: Charbax

Charbax — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:39:49 +0000

Your full Gmail account may not be 3GB when downloaded using Gears, cause I donj't think it will download your attachments. So probably that your text-only Gmail is just a few tens of megabytes in all.

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:19:53 +0000

Yes, and I've been using Thunderbird. Which I will soon uninstall, because accessing Gmail directly while offline is much better.

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:19:11 +0000

Is the no-browser part a dealbreaker, or just the the desire to access offline?

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:14:33 +0000

That's what I meant, Matt — that you can get rid of Outlook!

By: Jay Parkhill

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:04:19 +0000

These look great. I'm trying to get Fluid to work right now but it
isn't quite cooperating. It looks like just the thing, though. Thanks!

By: Chad Dorsey

Chad Dorsey — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:59:59 +0000

Have you tried Fluid.app or Mozilla's PRISM? Easy, one-click, dedicated “apps” from any Web page. And there may be others I'm not listing here.

By: land_mammal

land_mammal — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:10:22 +0000

I have had this for years. Its called Mail talking to Gmail via Imap. Woo! A desktop app. Imagine that. Client server is back baby .

By: Jay Parkhill

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:17:38 +0000

Email offline is nice. Next I want the equivalent of a Gcalendar iPhone app for my desktop- one click to open my Google calendar from the desktop instead of working through the browser.

By: Matt Marshall

Matt Marshall — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:08:06 +0000

Uh, I already use gmail Anthony. I've just been porting into Outlook. Btw, this is what I've been waiting for, to get rid of outlook. Now I can use email on my desktop (while offline), I don't need Outlook anymore. That's the most important aspect of this announcement. It's one more frontal attack on Microsoft's Outlook.

This is huge!!!

By: David Speiser

David Speiser — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:15:45 +0000

Nice post Anthony, that's pretty freakin' cool.

So, what happens if you've installed Zimbra, and then add the offline Gmail app? Will the online/offline (positively) & offline/online (negatively) charged atoms of the email universe combine and combust in a nuclear (read: nook-u-lar) Internet fireball of bibliophilic proportions?

Or is it not that big a deal?