Google has promised to roll out to users in the US and UK offline access to Gmail, albeit as an experimental feature of its cloud-based application suite.
The Gmail new offline function will appear in the next couple days and enables users to handle their email through the usual Gmail interface. Any changes and updates made while offline will be automatically synchronised, once an internet connection becomes available.
In an official Google blog, the company has confirmed it has solved the problem of enabling offline access.
“Gmail will load in your browser even when you don’t have an Internet connection. You can read messages, star, label and archive them, compose new mail and more. Messages ready to be sent will wait in your Outbox until you’re online again.”
The step towards off-line use clears one of the major obstacles to web-based apps adoption by business.
The development uses the Google Gears platform, which has already been used to offline-enable Google Docs, Google Reader, and a number of other third-party web applications.
To activate the new offline access feature a user will need to download a Google Gears plug-in.
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Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of a mail box, which is sychronised with Gmail servers in the cloud as usual when a connection is available, but will use the data stored on a local drive in offline mode and synchronise with the servers when they become available again.
