Gmail feature

GOOGLE -- Several discussions about Gmail suggest that Google is perverting the Internet experience by offering a mail system that deviates from being a pure-play browser. When people demean "clever JavaScript tricks" that make Gmail a robust online email client, they often miss an important point. Google knows there is a pent-up market for an alternative webmail client and that market sits behind banks of firewalls and discriminating proxy servers. You have to fool those pieces of technology in order to install and run on desktops. Many of those desktops won't permit their users to install plug-ins to browsers. To get them on Gmail, you give them fast responsiveness, slick keyboard controls, and a clean interface. They don't need a fully-featured web app, functional browser buttons, or real links. They won't care if their pages are coded in JavaScript and not HTML. To these millions of unsigned users, they want something that they can use with IT support desk help. It's grand if it appears to run inside their browser.

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Google -- Gmail beta
Mark Pilgrim -- "Gmail accessibility"
Aaron Swartz -- "Gmail update"
EFF -- "Gmail: What's the deal?"
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Comments

[Forrest O.]

I agree that GMail has created a great web-app, but the proxy server at my place of work won't even let gmail.google.com load.