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Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

gmailblog.blogspot.com

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Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#21

Post by gojomo »

mhartl wrote: post #2

Google gmail goes off line with google gears (official google blog entry) s/gmail/Gmail s/off line/offline s/gears/Gears s/google/Google/g

This is a good comment: its suggestions were accepted; it improves the look of the top story on the front page.

But ideally it would disappear from view as soon as it is addressed, and even before being addressed, it shouldn't interfere with other on-topic conversation.

I would like it if articles had a separate 'meta' thread for comments like this. Or, for comments to have an extra 'transient meta' flag that lets them be deleted indefinitely in the future, once they're addressed or otherwise moot.

Only people who choose to view meta -- or those with the power to change the target, like the original author or admins -- would then need to see these comments.

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#22

Post by gojomo »

mhartl wrote: post #17
mooism2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to nitpick over something, nitpick over the link being to the front page of the blog, not to the blog post. (Maybe by the time people reading this tomorrow follow the link, Google will have posted something else.)

One error is a nit, but five in one article title? That's just sloppy. Proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are de rigueur here at Hacker News, and as one of its more wizened denizens I was doing my part to enforce the local culture. (It was also an implicit message to the editors to fix it---which they did.) N.B. This is a record number of downmods for me (five as of this writing), and I find it alarming…

I think a lot of hair-trigger downvoters have arrived in the past few weeks. (Or maybe old hands have just gotten grumpy.)

I've noticed quality comments being pushed initially down to 0 or -1 simply because they have a strong viewpoint with which some people would disagree.

It's unavoidable that one-dimensional moderation votes will often be used for expressing disagreement. OK. Still, comments should only be pushed below 1 -- faded out as if they were a punishable offense -- if they're bad for the discussion.

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#23

Post by ryanwaggoner »

peregrine wrote: post #7
bprater wrote: post #3

This must have been a real pain to implement; rumors of this have been floating around for years now. Reader has had Gears for many moons now.

Well to release gears to a application like reader or docs is easy cause your userbase is small. Gmail is a HUGE product with thousands of users and to even release something like that to labs you need complete protection of not only the data but also security for your DBs. Reader and Docs were simply there to ensure the safety, if they went down due to security issues not that many people would be concerned.

Google's audience for reader and docs are in the millions and could hardly be described as "small", just like Gmail has a lot more than "thousands" of users :)

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#24

Post by bluefish »

cglee wrote: post #13

This is undoubtedly great work from a technical standpoint, but I see the real value here for other types of web apps. Since gmail already supports imap, you could've been managing your mail from a number of free mail clients offline. Just like how Google Maps touched off the ajax craze, this may be more about ushering in a new archetype of offline apps beyond email.

The problem with managing your email from other clients, at least to me, is that other email clients have workflows that don't work with my expectations. I'm so used to using the Gmail key bindings that I find working in Apple Mail or Thunderbird slow and painful. The lack of a native Archive metaphor in those clients causes me further pain. I funnel almost all of my email into Gmail and gave up on local email clients some time ago. The only way I would revert is if I could have a local app that approximated the Gmail workflow. Offline Gmail is a welcome addition.

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#25

Post by adg »

I wonder why Google isn't offering a DOM Storage implementation of this. Versions of Firefox 2 and later offer built-in support for WHATWG's DOM Storage API, which would (theoretically) allow users to have this functionality without installing the Gears extension.

My best guess is that Gears is more robust and probably easier to implement things with than DOM Storage, but I'd appreciate if anyone with experience using both could confirm this.

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#26

Post by [deleted] »

mhartl wrote: post #17
mooism2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to nitpick over something, nitpick over the link being to the front page of the blog, not to the blog post. (Maybe by the time people reading this tomorrow follow the link, Google will have posted something else.)

One error is a nit, but five in one article title? That's just sloppy. Proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are de rigueur here at Hacker News, and as one of its more wizened denizens I was doing my part to enforce the local culture. (It was also an implicit message to the editors to fix it---which they did.) N.B. This is a record number of downmods for me (five as of this writing), and I find it alarming…

[deleted]

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#27

Post by icey »

mhartl wrote: post #17
mooism2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to nitpick over something, nitpick over the link being to the front page of the blog, not to the blog post. (Maybe by the time people reading this tomorrow follow the link, Google will have posted something else.)

One error is a nit, but five in one article title? That's just sloppy. Proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are de rigueur here at Hacker News, and as one of its more wizened denizens I was doing my part to enforce the local culture. (It was also an implicit message to the editors to fix it---which they did.) N.B. This is a record number of downmods for me (five as of this writing), and I find it alarming…

I'm sorry, but it isn't "de rigueur" here to play grammar and spelling nazi to headlines. Yes, people who post while abiding by the standard rules of English are generally better regarded here than people who do not.

If you really feel you must point out the failings of someone's grammar or capitalization, then perhaps you should find another avenue to point it out than overplayed vim-isms.

Palish has set a good example if you must: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=436458

Re: Gmail goes offline with Google Gears

#30

Post by gojomo »

icey wrote: post #27
mhartl wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One error is a nit, but five in one article title? That's just sloppy. Proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are de rigueur here at Hacker News, and as one of its more wizened denizens I was doing my part to enforce the local culture. (It was also an implicit message to the editors to fix it---which they did.) N.B. This is a record number of downmods for me (five as of this writing), and I find it alarming…

I'm sorry, but it isn't "de rigueur" here to play grammar and spelling nazi to headlines. Yes, people who post while abiding by the standard rules of English are generally better regarded here than people who do not. If you really feel you must point out the failings of someone's grammar or capitalization, then perhaps you should find another avenue to point it out than overplayed vim-isms. Palish has set a good exam…

Using compact s/// notation to recommend changes isn't 'nazi', it's hacker.

It's the reader's choice to interpret it as brusque rather than just efficient. Choose well!

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