I’ve always thought GMail was pretty cool. Lately I think it’s only getting better. I’ve moved my personal email domains over to GMail, and I haven’t looked back. I know, I wrote about Zimbra a little while back, and it is still a great product. My needs, however, required hosting my email in a place other than an old server in another room in my house.
The cool thing about GMail is that it’s always accessible, from wherever you are, as long as you have an Internet connection. But wait, what about those times you don’t have an Internet connection? Google has the answer.
Using their own open-source plugin, Google Gears, GMail can now download all of your email to your local hard drive. But wait, it gets even better.
You access your email exactly the same as you do when you’re online. That’s right – straight from your browser. Even though you can’t reach www.techjolt.com, you can still reach gmail.com and read, respond to, and otherwise manipulate your email just as if you were connected to the Internet.
As soon as you get a connection, GMail will automatically send what is in your Outbox, and check for new messages. Seamlessly.
Google says their Offline GMail is still in beta and there will be kinks, but so far things seem to be going spectacularly.
Check out the video for a visual explanation…
