It seems that this year Google's most popular web applications will work offline. After Google Reader and Google Docs, two other services will integrate with Gears. Andrew Fogg saw a preview of the integration at Google's offices and found that Gmail and Google Calendar will add offline support in approximately 6 weeks.
In the past months, Google accidentally enabled the option in Google Calendar and some users saw the dialog illustrated below: "To view and edit the next 3 months of your Google Calendar when you're not connected to the Internet, click OK."
Andrew also found out that Google will add SyncML support for Gmail contacts next month. He thinks this is "related to the sync that they worked on with Apple for 3G iPhone".
SyncML is a standard for data synchronization supported by a lot of companies. "SyncML is most commonly thought of as a method to synchronize contact and calendar information between some type of handheld device and a computer (personal, or network-based service), such as between a mobile phone and a personal computer."
Labels: Google Gears
said on July 17, 2008 6:57 AM PDT:
This is interesting news.
Goosync added an option to upgrade memberships from yearly to unlimited (meaning works forever) subscriptions lately. I upgraded, but did think that maybe Goosync knew something about Google I didn't.
Now this points further in that direction. If Google is going to offer reliable SyncML in the future, Goosync's business will be in trouble.
Andrew said on July 17, 2008 7:41 AM PDT:
So can SyncML keep my GMail contacts in sync with Address Book.app?
erich13 said on July 17, 2008 8:14 AM PDT:
Saw a post in Twitter (twitter.com/KIntheHouse/statuses/860966189) and came to check it out. "Offline support" caught my attention. I would love offline support of Google Docs and Google Calendar.
Dug said on July 17, 2008 8:36 AM PDT:
My experience of syncml has been mostly that it always works but never works correctly. I've been syncing handsets with my mac for years and have pretty much never had a correct and/or complete sync of my address book...
Finally, been waiting for offline support of Gmail for a while. Hope they'll add support for Google Apps Gmail quickly as that's what my company needs most of all. I have 4 or 5 years worth of emails in my personal Gmail and a good years worth of email in my Google Apps emails. I suspect they'll initially only allow access to a limited amount of your emails. Probably no access to attachments, or emails older than, say, 180 days or whatever.
said on July 17, 2008 9:31 AM PDT:
I suppose Gmail doesn't show ads in offline mode. So as long as you sync every half an hour or so, you can have an ad-free Gmail experience for free?
said on July 17, 2008 9:40 AM PDT:
Well, that is nice to see you add SyncML support for Gmail Contacts, but unless you guys address a more serious issue (1:1 association with contact and email address), Contacts is still a weak contender to other systems. I have lots of contacts where multiple family members (e.g., husband, wife) share same address. Also, companies often have multiple folks using same address (e.g., customerservice@google.com).
said on July 17, 2008 9:51 AM PDT:
Why is it that every time Google release a new feature, someone comes around and complaints about another one. Hey! This is great news. Gmail is not perfect, but it
is getting there.
Guys,
Off line mode is something that lot of users will love.
Out Free MS Outlook integration application KiGoo (www.getkigoo.com) is planed to have it in the near future, also with support for multiple calendars and Google Doc access. All within MS Outlook user interface.
said on July 17, 2008 4:33 PM PDT:
When will they sync Gmail & Google Notebook?
