I use the auth method also via Net::SMTP::SSL against yahoo mail instead of google mail and it returns 1 if the authentication has worked.
The odd part is that your SMTP status Code 235 indicates that the authentication has worked.
I guess you need to step in the debugger to see where the problem starts...
Update: Maybe you mixed the Net and the MIME module: 
my $smtp = Net::SMTP::SSL->new("", Debug=>1, Timeout=>20, Port=>465);
    $smtp->auth('', "") or die "Error message: $smtp->message";

[download]
is what I do...

In reply to Re: Getting Net::SMTP::SSL debug information by weismat
in thread Getting Net::SMTP::SSL debug information by sirsir

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