Google promises offline Calendar support

"Google Apps customers have been asking for offline Calendar access, and we know how important this feature is for users on the go," the company told vnunet.com.

"We have been testing the feature internally at Google for a while, and plan to release offline Calendar for wider testing by our most avid business users within the next few weeks."

The move signals Google's commitment to providing more offline working capabilities, after having released offline Google Docs last year and Gmail offline support earlier this week.

The search firm also announced a "flaky connection mode" this week, for instances when connection is weak and intermittent. Both modes will bring relief to users who frequently travel by air or train.

Google went on to note that "offline Calendar will provide read-only access to existing events on Google Calendar using Gears, an open-source browser extension that adds offline functionality directly to the browser".

This means that, when a user is not connected to the internet, Google Calendar will use information stored on the computer's hard drive rather than relying on information sent across the network.