This morning Google announced that "offline Gmail" is leaving the Gmail Labs testing area and will be implemented as a standard feature for all users. Once enabled, this feature allows you to access your Gmail even when no internet connection is available. You can read and respond to messages, star them or label them just as you would if you were online. When a connection is restored, all the changes you made are synced with Google's servers and any messages in your Outbox are sent out. As of today, all Gmail users will now have this feature turned on by default, however those who have never used it before will need to configure it first in order to take advantage of the enhanced functionality. Sponsor Gears Makes a Public Debut The Labs section of Gmail is where experimental and in-development programs, add-ons, and extra features are housed, allowing Gmail users to switch them on or off as desired. Offline Gmail was one of those experiments, launched back in January of this year. Using Gears , an open source plug-in technology designed by Google, email messages are downloaded to your local machine when you switch to offline mode. Also, if your internet connection is dropped unexpectedly, offline Gmail is automatically enabled. In the year in which offline Gmail has been in testing, the company says they received a lot of feedback from users. Some of the requested features have already been implemented, including the ability to choose which messages get downloaded for offline use and the ability to send attachments while offline . According to the Google blog post , anyone who was already running the Labs version of offline Gmail won't have to make any changes but those who had never turned on the setting will need to do the following: Click the "Settings" link in the top-right corner of Gmail. Click the "Offline" tab. Select "Enable Offline Mail for this computer." Click "Save Changes" and follow the directions from there. But Isn't Google Switching to HTML5? At first it seems like "graduating" offline Gmail from Labs is step in preparation for next year's launch of Google Chrome OS , the web-based operating system that ditches the desktop, the hard drive, and computer applications for a web browser where everything users access lives online. Because online applications require an internet connection to work, there have been some concerns as to how functional this OS will be in a world that is not yet blanketed in Wi-Fi or 3G. Since Google has made no mention of built-in hardware providing 3G and cellular access as a backup to Wi-Fi, there will be a lot of programs that simply don't work when you go offline...that is, except for the programs that Google develops itself. The company has already implemented its Gears plug-in on two other products in addition to Gmail: Google Reader and Google Docs . Meanwhile, other companies have also adopted the technology including online office suite Zoho and to-do list app Remember the Milk . What's odd about this launch of Google Gears into primetime via Gmail is that this seems to conflict a bit with what Google execs announced last month regarding the company's plans for its upcoming operating system, Chrome OS. During the Q&A session at the end of the press event , an audience member asked about Google Gears support to which Google's VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai replied by saying that Chrome OS will take advantage of HTML5 for local storage. He made no mention of Gears. HTML5 , a proposed revision to HTML, the markup language of the World Wide Web, includes offline storage as one of its many new features. And it's this specification that Google's plans to support in the future, not Gears, according to numerous reports. For example, in a recent article in the L.A. Times , a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying: "We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites." Also, Linus Upson, the engineering director at Google told PC Magazine that the company was abandoning its work on Gears 2, the next version of the plug-in, and will be focused on HTML5 instead. "You can almost think of what's in HTML5, with app cache, and database, and those things, as essentially Gears [version] 2," he said. "That's how we view it." Upson noted, too, that the company would be able to influence the adoption of HTML5 through their web browser, Google Chrome, the foundation of the new Chrome OS. "Now that we're a browser vendor, we can help move HTML5 forward not as a plug-in, but as part of Chrome," Upson said. So in other words, the Gears functionality being switched on now in Gmail may not be the same technology used a year from now when Google Chrome OS hits the market. That begs the question: why bother? If Google plans to replace Gears with HTML5 in the near future what's the point of rolling out the soon-to-be abandoned plug-in to all its users now? Will Gears and HTML5 converge somehow or will Google just rip out the plug-in in favor of HTML5's "plug-in-less" technology instead? Let us know what you think in the comments. Discuss

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Offline Gmail Becomes Standard Feature (But Still Uses Gears?)

Yesterday's official launch of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new mobile payment system was greeted with a lot of enthusiasm . Not everybody agrees that Square's business model is viable, however. Today, we got a chance to talk to Andy Kleitsch, the CEO of Billing Revolution , who didn't hold back in his criticism of Dorsey's plans. According to Kleitsch, Square is going after the wrong kind of customer if it wants to be a viable business: merchants who don't qualify for accounts with traditional credit card processors because the would be deemed 'high risk' by these companies. Sponsor Billing Revolution offers a mobile payment system that gives customers the ability to pay for purchases through their phone and allows merchants to process credit cards through Billing Revolution's mobile site. It's worth noting that Square is using mobile technology to give merchants the ability to process transactions on their mobile phones and laptops and won't enable uses to make mobile payments directly from their phones. As Billing Revolution competes with Square, we have to take Kleitsch' comments with a grain of salt, but a lot of his arguments do ring true within the context of the credit card processing business. Are Real Merchants Looking for an Alternative? According to Kleitsch, established businesses "are not looking for Jack's solution." A regular coffee shop can get a payment terminal for free and only pays about $20 in fees per month (plus a percentage of every transaction). Kleitsch argues that the customer that is most likely to use Square's system is somebody who makes jewelry at home and sells it at a local Christmas bazaar. The question is if this is a large enough market for Square. Traditional credit card processors are also able to settle accounts daily. It remains to be seen if Square will offer a similar service. Potential for Fraud Square will also have to deal with potential fraud. While we don't know the exact details about how Square will operate, chances are that the company will have to keep a large reserve in an escrow account with the credit card processing companies that power Square's back-end. Anybody who sits on a pile of stolen credit cards, Kleitsch pointed out, could use Square to run up charges on these accounts. Once the defrauded credit card owners dispute these charges, Square could be left with a large bill to pay. Merchants with a chargeback rate of more than 2% are typically turned down by credit card processing companies. If Kleitsch is right, these would be exactly the kind of merchants who would be interested in using Square's payment system. Too Risky? Obviously, the company's investors and advisors don't think this business model is too risky. There can also be little doubt that consumers could benefit from a new company that disrupts the current status quo in the credit card processing world. Do you think Kleisch's argument that Square will attract the wrong kind of customers holds true? Or do you think Square will revolutionize the market and finally give small companies the ability to do business on a level playing field? Discuss

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Is Jack Dorsey's Square Going After the Wrong Customers?

Square , a new mobile phone payment system founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey , just launched its private beta today. Square will give anybody the ability to accept payment cards without having to go through a costly credit card processing service. Instead, Square will give its users the ability to use their mobile phones, laptops or desktop computers to accept payment cards and swipe them with the help of a small dongle that will plug into the computer's or phone's audio jack. Sponsor Square is backed by Khosla Ventures and a team of angel investors. Square's team of advisors includes actress Alyssa Milano , Susan Wu, Ryan Gilbert, Ted Wang and Gregg Kid (who was also an angel investor in Twitter). According to the information on Square's website, users won't have to sign any contracts and there won't be any monthly fees or hidden costs. Square is currently only working with a select group of companies but plans to expand widely in 2010. In its current iteration, Square works on the iPhone and iPod touch. It's not clear how much the dongle will cost, but chances are that it will be cheap, as the company plans to focus on the service and not the hardware. Disrupting the Credit Card Processing Business Credit card processors (the people behind the card swiping machines at your local coffee shop, restaurant or corner store) typically take a hefty cut from every transaction and charge monthly fees. Square want to be a cheaper, more modern alternative to these systems. Square will email receipts to a payer's phone, for example, and allow merchants to track frequent customers and offer them discounts. In addition, Square will also donate one penny for every transaction to a cause of the user's choice. Thanks to Square, every stand at a local farmers' market and every small coffee cart or hot dog vendor on the street will soon be able to accept credit cards without having to go through one of the major credit card processing services. Competition It's worth noting that other services like ePAY and Obopay also offer solutions that allow anybody to accept credit cards, though Square's service looks to be far more elegant than any of the current solutions we have seen. See the next page for additional screenshots The Square dongle Discuss

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Square: Twitter Co-Founder Launches New Mobile Payment System

IBM has acquired Guardium , a real-time provider of enterprise monitoring technology to secure and provide better business intelligence across the hundreds of databases that often exist in larger enterprises. Guardium has established itself as one of the premiere data security companies. Its clients are a who's who of the Global 100. Its technology is designed to protect from internal and external threats to the enterprise. It is known for its ability to provide data integrity for better governance and compliance. Sponsor As one of its executives said in an interview, Guardium provides a last line of defense against attacks, kind of like the "goal keepers of the data." Details of the acquisition were not disclosed but an Israeli newspaper said the deal is valued at $225 million. IBM is banking on business analytics for future growth. As we report here often, the amount of information flowing into the enterprise is unprecedented but there are few companies that have the ability to quickly analyze this fragmented information and use it to make intelligent business decisions. For most, decisions are being made based upon incomplete information or data that has been corrupted in some manner. IBM see Guardium as a way for it to provide a transparent view into the enterprise by providing a real-time watch on information. By protecting the information, Guardium gives companies the ability to access data that has not been tainted. Guardium will become part of the IBM Information Management Software group, which has been on a bit of an acquisition binge in the past year. Earlier this year, IBM acquired SPSS , a statistics software company. Discuss

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IBM Acquires Guardium - The Last Line of Defense