Google Goes HTML5: Demos Experimental Version of Gmail

By Frederic Lardinois / February 18, 2009 6:08 PM / 9 Comments

Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, showed both a new mobile version of Gmail running on the iPhone and HTC Magic today, as well as a new mobile version of Google Maps running on the Palm Pre. The new mobile Gmail app, which Gundotra demoed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, makes extensive use of new features that are only available in HTML5. Among these new Gmail features were offline access, even in the browser, as well as support for labels.

Offline Gmail in the Browser

The mobile version of Google Maps on the Pre only made a short appearance, and it didn't look like it really featured anything new, but the experimental version of Gmail looked very impressive. Besides adding support for labels, the most interesting new feature (if Google ever releases this version) was offline access. To make this work, Google makes use of the AppCache and client-side storage features in HTML5, both of which Safari on the iPhone fully supports. Gundotra also stressed how fast the app ran.

Hopefully, Google will ship this new mobile version of Gmail soon, as it looks to be a major update of the current Gmail web app. It will also be interesting to see if Google decides to use the same technology to bring offline access to Google Docs to mobile phones (and standard browsers) as well.

Gmail Demo on iPhone and HTC Magic