Use Google Gears to Read Gmail Offline

Google Gears is an open source browser extension for IE and Firefox that allows web applications to be available offline. Gears in its current state offers minimal functionality for offline applications but the idea with it being open source is that developers will quickly follow with enhancements.

Google Gears caches resource files to make them available offline. Gmail users with the Google Gears extension installed are able to read their most recent messages offline. Google Docs users can edit their documents offline without a network connection. Google Gears enabled web applications will ask your permission before storing data offline so you don’t end up storing everything under the sun.

I just installed Google Gears. I am a gmail user and once I realized this would enable me to read my email offline I was hot to trot to get it going. I’ve got it now. Sure would have helped out at the airport between flights Labor Day weekend. I have been using gmail for my personal email for a couple years now. Prior to gmail I used Eudora. I forgot about the fact that I couldn’t read my email offline with gmail until the first power outage. When I realized this I was quite relieved that my work related email addresses were coming into Outlook which I could read offline. Now it’s not an issue with gmail with Google Gears browser extension.

Google Reader is the first Google application being powered by Gears. Google Reader organizes and manages all the content you are interested in reading. It automatically gets the news from your favorite sites through their feeds. You can organize the content coming in and even share things with friends from Reader. Reader can save you a lot of time if you go to all your news and interest sites regularly to check for updates. It will update the news and other content for you and it’s all in one location organized how you want.

I am looking forward to the many enhancements that will be created for Google Gears and love these developments that make the use of our main tool today easier.

Lynn Jebbia is a Senior Project Manager at ArteWorks SEO, a search engine marketing company. Her focus is SEO Strategy, Keyword Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Web Site Audits, Pay Per Click Management and Client Account Management.

Who's the Boss? Google or Microsoft

Lots of people are thinking that Google’s release of its own web browser Chrome is to steal browser market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and to hopefully eventually overtake Internet Explorer. Even more people see clearly the direction Google is going here. Matt Cutt’s, head of Google’s web spam team, makes no secret of his desire someday to be able to sit down at any computer anywhere in the world and have access to all of his applications. It would be pretty cool.

It’s the dawning of a new age. Microsoft created the Windows operating system, oh so long ago, which started their almost monopoly in operating systems, software, etc. Google seems to be trying to replicate this business model.

Google has Gmail for email. Google Docs for documents, Google Reader for news feeds, now Google Chrome for a browser and recently released Google Gears, a browser extension, allows web applications to be available offline. You can catch up on your email and news feeds when you are not able to get online. Google Gears is open source software and developers will be adding more valuable enhancements.

Review all the applications on your computer and visualize what it will be like to go to any computer and have Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver equivalent applications available to use. These applications might not have all the bells and whistles of your applications but enough to be able to do what you need to do and cache it on your computer.

In the operating system and software world Microsoft is currently the boss. In the search world Google is currently the boss. The question is who will be the boss if Google’s strategy to make the web the operating system and the applications you use available online.

Do you think Microsoft is worried? Do you really care? Competition is the best thing for the customer. It might be nice to feel like we are in charge again.

Lynn Jebbia is a Senior Project Manager at ArteWorks SEO. Her focus is
SEO Strategy, Keyword Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Web Site Audits, Pay Per Click Management and Client Account Management.