Google Updates Mobile Web for iPhone & Android Gmail Adds Floaty Bar

By Editor Wireless and Mobile News on April 8, 2009 11:11 AM

Google says that have improved Gmail for mobile, running in the iPhone and Android web browser.

They claim it is faster, works better when the network is slow or out, and the added "floaty bar" makes it easier to delete, read, archive email

If the data network drops out, now Gmail won't drop out.. When the network is down, users can still open recently read messages and to compose messages. The improvements were made with aggressive caching and by leveraging new browser technologies, like HTML5 and Gears.

VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, shared the news and demoed the new capabilities at the February 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona and last week at Web 2.0 in San Francisco.

The new Gmail for mobile will help tackle the inbox faster. Gone are the days when users had to archive multiple messages by selecting each one, then scrolling all the way up (or down) to reach the archive button. Now when users select a message, a floaty bar appears near the top of the screen with options to archive, delete, and more. In fact, the floaty bar stays up as users scroll through the inbox, to archive, delete, or view more options.

Labels are easier to read and are more in-line with the familiar Gmail labels you see on your desktop. We also moved the search menu up into the top header, making it more accessible.

It can be asccessed from an Android or iPhone browser at gmail.com