[dan1son]

IMAP is a mail transfer protocol. The two main ones for reading e-mail are POP3 and IMAP. Basically when you connect something like outlook express or thunderbird to your e-mail server it will need to connect to your server with one of those protocols.

POP3 is a very basic protocol which supports grabbing e-mail from the server. In the default setup it will download all of the e-mail and immediate delete it from the server. It does not support multiple folders or the idea of the messages being stored on the server for viewing purposes. So you basically tell the server, HEY I WANT MY MESSAGES, and it gives them to you and they are then stored on your computer. Again that's the basic setup, it's possible to have it store old messages even after you download them, and some servers support the idea of downloading just new headers, but it's not very good at it. It's also quite horrible at dealing with large numbers of messages.

IMAP is smarter. It supports the idea of folders (or multiple mailboxes). It also very nicely supports random access to messages. So you can download just the subjects and pick the one you want to read and it'll send you just that data. The messages will then stay stored on the server and can be organized in useful ways. Think of it like storing files on a remote server... you can grab whatever you want at any time without downloading everything else. It works just fine with large numbers of messages and large numbers of message folders.

Either of these is only useful, in regards to gmail, if you're using your own e-mail client. The biggest reason this is handy for google is because now people with iPhones can use mail.app to read their google mail through IMAP instead of using the craptastic web gmail on the iPhone.

 

[kugino]

the main reason IMAP is useful for me (and others who access their mail using multiple devices) is that we can access exactly the same file structure, emails, read and unread emails, etc. from our various devices. in short, it helps with bookkeeping.

pop, while useful in many ways, is difficult to manage from multiple devices because you may write an email from one device but that sent message won't appear in the other device...or you download a message on one device and then you don't have that email on another device. just many more variables you have to contend with in order to ensure that all your information is kept tidy.

that's the non-technical reason why IMAP is important to some people, most notably those who access their email from multiple devices and use various email clients.

 

[didwlgh]

Changed my gmail to IMAP mode in Thunderbird yesterday. Had some problems yesterday, but now it seems to be doing well. I guess waiting for a couple weeks won't hurt to those who are concerned with possible failures/bugs!

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by didwlgh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Changed my gmail to IMAP mode in Thunderbird yesterday. Had some problems yesterday, but now it seems to be doing well. I guess waiting for a couple weeks won't hurt to those who are concerned with possible failures/bugs!

the implementation of IMAP differs among different email services...and configuring clients to handle email properly is also somewhat troublesome. i'm getting this strange doubling of all my emails in mail.app on the mac...and i'm tired of trying to fix it for now. so i'll wait until i install leopard over the weekend and then see how the new mail.app handles IMAP.

 

[shiosai]

I am excited. But IMAP only turned on in one of my Gmail accounts. Set it up and now working flawlessly on iPhone.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shiosai /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am excited. But IMAP only turned on in one of my Gmail accounts. Set it up and now working flawlessly on iPhone.

i have my main account download emails from my other accounts...each other account is then given a label, which turns into a folder if using an email client. this way i just check one IMAP account and get all my mail...

 

[majid]

I don't trust Google (despite using them for search) and block all their cookies. I certainly won't entrust them with the ability to data mine my email.

If I didn't have my own IMAP server already, I would use Joyent's Connector.

 

[ingwe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAD /img/forum/go_quote.gif I refuse to let someone like Google (or any online service) have my mail. But then I'm spoiled with my own server. GAD

x2