Google has given yet another service the power to work when the user is not online. This time around, it is using its Gears product to allow access to your calendar even when disconnected.Google is on a roll. Last week it took Gmail offline via Gears, and now it is going to power access to your Google Calendar offline, as well. The only issue is, the offline calendar will be read-only, meaning you can't make new appointments or edit existing appointments.

Joyce Sohn, Google Apps marketing manager, writes in a blog post, "On top of organizing your Gmail in-box while you're traveling or without a strong Internet connection, you will be able to see your events in Google Calendar from wherever you are. Offline Calendar will let you view your existing schedule and events, but not edit them, so you don't have to print out calendars the night before a trip."

Getting offline access to your calendar is pretty simple. Once you've signed up for the calendar application, there is an link to the "Offline Beta." Click on that link and it will automatically start to synchronize your calendar so it can be viewed when your computer is offline.

For Google Apps Standard Edition, this new feature is available right away. Premier and Education Editions of Google Apps can't use it until the administrator first enables the new feature.

The ability to edit the calendar when offline with the option to sync to the online calendar later would be nice, but I suppose Google has to take things one step at a time.