Google restores offline access to GMail, Calendar and Docs in Google Chrome

As you know, earlier GMail, Google Calendar and Google Docs supported offline mode in all browsers using Google Gears plug-in. But then Google decided to bet on HTML5 and abandoned its own proprietary plug-in. The Gears was quickly removed from the Chrome browser (in Firefox and IE it still works). And today Google developers were happy to announce that the offline mode for these apps in Chrome is back and it is implemented on HTML5. However, for an average user it will look no better than it was before: for offline access you still need to install an app (from the Chrome Web Store). In addition, the interface of the offline app is different from the usual web-based GMail interface. It looks lie GMail for iPad.

Offline GMail app is already available. After installation it downloads your latest messages (about one week). You can't set the different period for now. Then messages will be synced between your computer and GMail server in the background and when the connection is lost, you can click on the GMail Offline icon and continue working with your inbox (search, read and write new messages.)

Offline apps for Google Calendar and Google Docs will be available in a week. Offline calendar will allow to view events and RSVP to appointments. In Offline Docs you will be able to view documents and spreadsheets, the offline editing is not ready yet.

In general, this is remarkable news only for Chromebook users, that still had no opportunity to work with these applications offline.

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