Offline Email - Gmail

Gmail Labs have introduced a new concept of Ofline email which uses Google Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. This feature will be very useful to users who have less internet connectivity but use emails extensively.When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network.And if you're on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you're "borrowing" your neighbor's wireless), you can choose to use "flaky connection mode", which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background.

Offline Gmail is an experimental lab feature,which is made available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don't see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon. Once you see it, just follow these steps to get started:

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 "Offline0.1" 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.