To date, users of Google popular webmail service, Gmail, could only check their email if they were hooked up to an active Internet connection.
But Google is bringing Gmail offline as a part of a larger overall strategy to turn the web browser into a new delivery mechanism for all kinds of applications. They're doing it through Google Gears, an open-source development platform for Mozilla's Firefox browser.
To activate offline Gmail, users need to install Google Gears, as well as a specific plugin. Once active, Gmail will start to monitor whether users are online or offline. Whenever a user goes online, Gmail will download and upload all relevant messages.
According to TechCrunch.com, the underlying code is the same as what Google uses to manage email in its mobile operating system, Android.
Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson said that this new plugin is part of Google's long-term vision for the web browser.
"The browser is the ideal platform for deploying all types of applications," he said. "We think the most powerful applications should run inside the browser. Historically it has been constrained by the connection."
Tech analyst Farhad Manjoo noted that other companies, including Microsoft, have offered similar services before, among them Windows Live Mail and Yahoo's Zimbra. Manjoo gave the new offline Gmail an extensive test run and reported positive results.
"Though I work from home and rarely find myself away from a hot Wi-Fi connection, I shut off my router and parked myself on my couch for about an hour yesterday," he wrote for Slate.com. "I loaded up Gmail on my laptop, and it responded seamlessly. I could read, search through, and respond to any message I'd received during the last two months, all through the familiar Web interface. Eureka — I'll never again be mail-less on a plane, a subway, or anyplace else where you don't have the Web but do have a lot of time to kill."