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Google Finally Enables Offline Access for Gmail

by Admin on January 29, 2009

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Google’s long-awaited offline access for Gmail is here, bringing a sigh of relief to users of Google’s messaging and collaboration software. Google Apps Standard Edition users will be able to access it immediately with a few steps, while consumers will see a more gradual rollout. The move should put Google on a more level playing field in cloud computing versus Microsoft, Yahoo Zimbra, Zoho and others with e-mail clients that already provide offline access.

Google on Jan. 27 reached a milestone in its competition against Microsoft with the introduction of offline access for Gmail, a long-awaited feature the company is rolling out to consumers and Google Apps users in the United States and United Kingdom.

In Web application parlance, offline access is when users can access application data even when they’re not connected to the Web. Google will soon follow Gmail offline access with offline access to Google Calendar. This will initially be available to Google Apps users only.

Created in Google’s Gmail Labs, offline access will enable Gmail to load in a Web browser without a Web connection. Users will be able to read, archive or write messages. Users can hit send on composed messages, which will remain in the Gmail outbox.

When the user’s computer reconnects online, Gmail will push the messages from its queue toward their recipients, Rajen Sheth, senior product manager for Google Apps, told eWEEK before the launch Jan. 27. Google provides a video demo of offline Gmail access here.

Built with the Google Gears browser technology used to let Google Reader, Google Docs and Zoho Mail render data offline, offline access for Gmail is immediately available for Google Apps Standard Edition users and consumers beginning the evening of Jan. 27. Users must download Google Gears to access it.

“We wanted to, with Gears, make it a seamless experience so that users don’t have to download a specialized client or go through a different experience than what they’re used to with the Web browser,” Sheth explained.

Offline access for Gmail consumer and business users is a major step for Google, which is trying to compete with Microsoft, Yahoo’s Zimbra and other e-mail providers by making Gmail as robust as possible for its tens of millions of users.

This is particularly important for users who are trying to access their application data in areas with spotty Internet connections, or with no Web connections at all. Air travel, for example, tends to be the biggest stumbling block for applications that don’t let their users access data offline.


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Gmail Exploit May Lead to Domain Hijacking

by Admin on November 23, 2008

Hii all Gmail users/lovers,

A Gmail security vulnerability may allow an attacker to set up filters on users’ e-mail accounts without their knowledge, according to a proof of concept posted Sunday at GeekCondition.com.

In his post, Brandon writes that the vulnerability has caused some people to lose their domain names registered through GoDaddy.com.

Without posting the full exploit, here is the key as Brandon explains it relies on obtaining the variables that represent the user name and “at”:

When you create a filter in your Gmail account, a request is sent to Google’s servers to be processed. The request is made in the form of a url with many variables. For security reasons, your browser doesn’t display all the variable contained within the url. Using FireFox and a plugin called Live HTTP Headers, you can see exactly what variables are sent from your browser to Google’s servers.

After that, an attacker just needs to identify the variable that is the equivalent of the username.

“Obtaining this variable is tricky but possible,” he writes. “I’m not going to tell you how to do it, if you search hard enough online you’ll find out how.”

The “at” variable can be obtained by visiting a malicious Web site, writes Brandon, who suggests that Google make the “at” variable expire after every request rather than after every session.

To avoid being a victim of the vulnerability, users should check their filters often, Brandon suggests. Firefox users can download an extension called NoScript that helps prevent these attacks, he said.

Of course, any Web site that uses cookies for authentication requests can be taken advantage of in the same way. To avoid becoming a victim to this type of exploit, Gmail users should logout of their accounts when they are not in use, and–of course–not visit Web sites that they don’t trust.

Google representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.


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Gmail themes officially released!

by Admin on November 20, 2008

Just now, I saw Google has released its 26 official themes for GMail.

Following the footsteps of Google’s personalized homepage, Gmail has themes too. Gmail’s new features are slowly rolled out, So once this new option is enabled in your account. You’ll find a tab named “Themes” in the settings page and you’ll be able to choose from 30 themes. Gmail is officially riding the interface customization train by offering 30-some new themes to spice up your inbox.

From Gmail help. ‘Themes allow you to customize the look and feel of your Gmail account. To choose a theme, click a thumbnail on the Themes tab of your Settings page. In some cases, you can also customize by location. Some themes change during the day, and we use the location information you provide to correctly time these changes with your local sunrise, sunset, and/or weather.’

To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under Settings. Google will be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see them yet, check back soon.


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