A Challenge to Microsoft? Google Will Soon Let You Check Your E-Mails Offline
- Posted on September 1, 2011 at 11:57am by
Liz Klimas
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If you have a Gmail account — which seems like everyone these days — you can now (or will soon be able to) access it offline, bringing Google one step closer to cloud-computing domination.
This is what several technology experts are saying is a challenge to Microsoft’s Office Suite. As CNET’s Stephen Shankland wrote back in February:
Google is betting on a future with ubiquitous, affordable, wireless, high-speed Internet access. That may be smart in the long run, but last week that philosophy drove me straight back into the arms of Microsoft.
But Google’s announcement yesterday that several of its applications can go offline will shake things up. Chrome users can install offline-access applications through the Chrome Web Store and start using Gmail, Google Docs and other Google applications offline right away. Non-Chrome users will eventually have this capability available to them. PC World has the details:
Once installed, these offline applications will create an icon in the Chrome browser interface for launching them when users aren’t online. The Gmail application will have its own user interface separate from the Gmail web interface, while the Docs and Calendar applications will trigger their web application’s interface and work in the background.
In all three cases, users will get access to a subset of the web applications’ features. For example, in Docs it will be possible to view documents and spreadsheets, but not yet edit those documents. In Calendar, users will be able to view events and RSVP to appointments.
Yesterday, CNET reported Rajen Sheth, a Google group product manager, as saying, “This is the first step. We wanted to get something that meets core needs of users and then iterate.”
Previously, Google offered offline Gmail through technology called Gears, but it discontinued that application for Chrome in May 2011 to move forward with its new offline capability.
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cyclops
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 2:58amWhat is next? Are they going to be able fingerprint people just from touching the key-boards? LOL!!
Report Post »jscottu
Posted on September 3, 2011 at 10:04amYahoo is the best email. But I have several…hotmail…aol…google…
Report Post »ejbonk
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 1:07pmI have a G-Mail Account. I do not us it very offen,if at all. Why? It’s a pain in the ass. I prefer my yahoo account to the others,I just wish they would leave it alone and quit trying to make it cool. It’s just fine the way it is.
Report Post »benzo13
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 4:24amNational registry for athiest will back-fire with programs like this. We would have to believe governent is going to be more godly than it is now? Google is just looking for more ways to be able to track you at all times. you will be in their handy dandy i pad at a moments notice with full disclosure on your political views. You will be monitered and convicted op political crimes as the state becomes more terrorist than ever. Yes i can call my thought science fiction the same was Capt. kirk used a flip phone in the 70′s. And anything is possible. Welcome to the new world order. (oops i shouldn’t have posted this). Good luck and, ” don’t get caught”!
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:50pmUgly Al can do exactly what he wants to do. MSNBC should know better than to fuss at ugly AL. Al is special. He belongs to the government’s special royalty. He is a black man. That title enables him to do pretty much as he pleases. You see, he can get a job before white people…even though he may not qualify for it. He and his kids can go to any school they wish…but your white kids go where they are told. He can sue invoking the civil rights law over any percieved slight. You cannot. He , being black, could commit crimes against white people (if he wanted to) and it would not be called a hate-crime…because, afterall…it was just a white person. He can demand intergration when it favors him and then demand segregation when it helps him. For instance…”black Miss America. BET, black colleges.the Black Caucus…and many more come to mind. He can march and threaten. He can have all black meetings but if white people had a meeting over anything…’it must be racist.’ It is alright if the whole basketball team or football team is black…but if it were reversed…they would be ‘raaaacist’.
Report Post »SOOOOO..in short…MSNBC will have to apologize to ugly AL….before he stages a march in their stupid studio;.
M-O-O-N Spells Moon
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 2:47pm…But are they still going to index the contents of your mail to “improve their service?” That has been my biggest problem with Google, with their intent to “do no evil” they tread all over people’s privacy. But they continually get a free pass because of their hipster relation to the President.
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