Google Takes Gmail Offline

Google announced on their blog that Gmail can now be taken offline with Google Gears, a free open source browser extension. This is one of the most obvious moves for Google as they try and make Windows more and more obsolete by building more capability into the browser.

Gmail which is still in beta after more than 5 years has been having a huge growth spurt. Over the last year Gmail has grown over 43% and with offline access I am sure the growth will continue. Gmail is one of Google’s only success stories out of their core search business. If I was Yahoo or Microsoft I would be more concerned than ever about Google taking more market share and more effectively monetizing those new users.