Google Mail now Offline via Google Gears

While logging into my Google Mail inbox, I have a habit of checking the labs features. This morning, a new option was made available: “Offline by the Offline team”… Here’s a screenshot of that option:

The Official Gmail Blog have also announced the availability of this feature.

Here’s a video posted on their blog:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOAZaIaeIrI&fmt=18[/youtube]

This feature brings about an answer to one of the pertinent questions that had surfaced after Google Docs got Gears support: “will Google Mail get Gears also?”. As the Official Gmail Blog correctly pointed out, web based emails are great, with only one problem, internet connectivity. With this, hopefully, that problem will somewhat be eased.

This will put Gmail somewhere in between web mail and desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. Currently, with Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), emails can also be managed via this clients, although none will have the level of integration Gmail with Gears will have. As an added benefit, there is a “Flaky Connection Mode”, which

uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background

One point to note though, the offline mode requires the installation of Google Gears. For now, the feature is available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English. However, the roll-out will take a while. At this post’s publishing time, only my Google Apps account had Offline Labs feature available. My normal Google Mail account have yet to receive this new addition.