Comments on: Why Gmail won’t do IMAP

By: Just when you think you’ve figured them out… | Tip o’ the Day

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:29:13 +0000

[...] this. It seems you really never can judge a book by its cover! I blogged a few weeks ago on why Google would never do IMAP. Well, it’s time to eat my [...]

By: Random Joe

Random Joe — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:19:54 +0000

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=75726

By: mshade

mshade — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:58:23 +0000

That’s a great point, Earl — Google wants users to get away from folders and into the tagging and searching world of mail management. I agree that it doesn’t translate well to a thick client, at least any out there at the moment, but it doesn’t preclude offering IMAP. Having everything in just the Inbox / Sent / Junk boxes would be sufficient for most.

I disagree that that Google’s customers aren’t asking for IMAP, though. That’s evidenced by the popularity of this post, and the number of workarounds out there. People have a favorite client and they’ll push to be able to use Google’s spam filtering, storage, etc, outside of their webmail. If necessity is the mother of invention, then the interest is there.

By: Earl

Earl — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:52:38 +0000

You’re missing two huge reasons why gmail doesn’t support IMAP. The first is the biggest, I believe — IMAP uses folders, and gmail uses tags.

One of the key features with IMAP is that the folder structure you use on the server can be mirrored in your client(s). But the tag system in gmail isn’t the same as a folder system — it doesn’t translate well. If you’ve slapped four different tags on an email, should it show up in all four folders, as though you’d made copies?

Here’s the other issue — 99% of the population hasn’t got a clue what IMAP is, or why they should care about it. They’ve heard of POP3 before, so they know to ask about that, but most people aren’t asking Google for more. If their customers aren’t asking for it, why should they provide it?

By: hhuynh

hhuynh — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:48:10 +0000

I came to this blog through dzone.com But for some reason, they took down the link. I guess they censor the content of you post.

It used to be here, now just a forward message.

http://www.dzone.com/links/why_gmail_wont_do_imap.html

Thanks for the nice argument. I think you’re dead on.

By: mshade

mshade — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:27:54 +0000

But with IMAP, you need not download anything but the headers — about the same amount of traffic as the web interface would give you anyway. Plus, it can be cached.

I don’t mind the web UI, really. It’s nice, fast, etc. But I’d like to be able to use IMAP if I want to.

By: Billie von Smith

Billie von Smith — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:25:17 +0000

I actually don’t want to download all my gmail because I have tons of it (almost a gig) and because Google is better at searching it than FIrefox. At first I thought the no-IMAP thing was bad, but now I much prefer using the web UI.