Clerks BLAH!

What’s the biggest difference between using Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird verses using a web based email like Gmail? The fact that you can work offline with a standalone application where with a web based email you can only use your email when you have an active internet connection.

Well Gmail has solved this with their Offline Gmail option that is available in Gmail Labs. It works with Google Gears and allows your email to be synchronized into an offline mode.

What happens is when you access mail.google.com with no internet connection the page will load, but without the ability to actually receive or send. It simply waits until you get an active internet connection and processes everything at once.

To install it (from within gmail):
1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline 0.1″ link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.