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AOL Mail To Be Accessible Via IMAP
jfruhlinger writes "News.com.com is reporting that AOL's e-mail service, long accessible only via AOL's proprietary, monolithic app, will be available via IMAP starting Thursday. The story notes that this is part of a series of initiatives from AOL to move content beyond its walled garden and into standards-based formats such as HTML and IMAP that any Internet app can access. Supposedly a 'a dramatically different direction' for Netscape is in the works, too."
Now I can delete the 99% spam I get in my AOL inbox faster!
This is one less reason to make fun of aol users :)
I'd love AIM to be opened up, but I'm not holding my breath. Mail is a commodity now, and there is no obvious benefit in walling it up any more. But IM is dominated by the big three: AOL+ICQ, MSN and Yahoo. AOL has too much to lose by letting go, especially since its craptacular IM client is likely to be beaten hands down by Gaim or MSN Messenger.
Mozilla Thunderbird. They've even recently added IMAP IDLE support! (It's in the nightlies.)
The lightning speed with which AOL makes new technology available to their users has always amazed me !
MP3 Search Engine
This is great news for AOL people, but there is one important issue to worry about...
Will they still be able to hear the nice person's voice say, "You've Got Mail"?
Wow. It's like they want to be a real ISP or something.
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
Accessing the AOL Mail System using
IMAP & Authenticated SMTP
An Unofficial Guide
If AOL keeps this up, they might actually be taken seriously.
This seems to go hand-in-hand with the release of their AOL Communicator application... anything to save a sinking ship, I suppose.
I wonder what the new direction for Netscape is... how many people still trust the Netscape brand enough for them to get any legs out of it?
"You've got standards-based mail!"
Trolling is a art,
Only email.
The "core" of AOL is the content that is inside of AOL. In that regard, AOL is not fundamentally different than it was 15 years ago (or so).
Now, allowing email via IMAP is pretty significant, but the community of AOL will still remain.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Too bad that most people who would understand how to setup an IMAP account on Outlook quit AOL years ago.
AOL is usually pretty realiable for dial up.
They've dropped the requirement of the browser. Maybe if they drop:
-The fee thats atleast $10 more than everyone else
-The buggy browser by default
-The advertisements (haven't used it for a while, does it still advertise when you sign on?)
More people will find it appealing, and the people who already use it will be happier
Help Fight SPAM today!
Well,
;-)
This goes to show that they could do this all along. They just needed a little nudge by Google's gmail. Competition always encourages innovation
Just Me
Any Hacker that's been unfortuneate enough to get stuck using free trials of AOL has know that AOL was accessable by an off-branded-sort of IMAP for years, at least 8 years in fact. The fact that they're telling people this, is Good I suppose, but You can connect via Oulook, If you want, but I'm not sure why this is really valueable to anyone, since IMAP isn't the easiest thing to setup, and if someone is using AOL. . . .
As Far as I know, I have possitive Carma, mod me down if you must
Can I be a Luddite too?
When I was developing a patient community for a cancer treatment facility, I had a wav that, upon login, played "You've got cancer!"
My boss thought it was hilarious. Good thing we remembered to take it out before the client saw it!
This reminds me of a funny thing a commentator on NPR said a few years ago, "Having aol.com in your email address is the online equivalent of wearing a Members Only jacket."
What really makes me cringe is when I see an AOL address on the website of someone who owns his or her own domain name. Why can't you just use your domain name email? Why would you admit that you're an AOL subscriber? my brain screams.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
No, I ahve a friend that's supported thier "product for years" and there's specific thing built into AOL's Custom TCP/IP / PPP protocol stack that differ from the standard protocol versions, and the network drivers that AOL installs so it can do this also don't work with any of the standard TCP clients, so AOL has to negotiate the connection via their software. Also, AOL uses it's own modem drivers, which allows them to modify the actual handshake. Besides, the point of AOL is the software.
Can I be a Luddite too?
Supposedly a 'a dramatically different direction' for Netscape is in the works, too.
Woo Hoo!
Any new direction is better than their current direction: down.
And they still do. It costs (AFAIK) (for cable) about $5 more than RoadRunner. It's the same basic service, but without the RoadRunner brand and with a cheaper version of AOL's BYOI (Bring Your Own ISP) service (which costs about $7/mo, IIRC).
This is what AOL does best. It provides a really stellar GUI for the people who are uneasy working with computers. I have watched these same consumers get visably shaken even venturing into Outlook Express. They want the AOL look and feel. Although I think it is progressive of AOL to offer the other email clients to their customers, I doubt if many of the committed AOL users will take advantage of this.
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
Um, nobody's suggesting your dad stop reading Email sent to his AOL address.
If your dad has a vanity domain such as www.blugu64sdad.com he could easily have all mail sent to Dad@blugu64sdad.com automagically forwarded to his AOL account.
Then his business card would be much more impressive to anyone reading it, "Wow! He's internet-savvy, he has his own domain!" or "Wow! He's successful, he has an IT department to set up and run a domain for him!" instead of "Gee, he's got a lowbrow email addie, he must be technically incompetent".
Sorry to say but the real world actually does work like that. I know of several cases where vendors lost a sale simply for having an AOL or HotMail address.
It's not that AOL's IP stack is different, it is that AOL uses a different data link protocol than most dialup ISPs. Rather than opening a PPP session, when you connect to AOL, you establish a bastardized L2TP session with a machine referred to as a BERP. The BERPs essentially act as proxies for everything you attempt to access once you are connected. There are open source attempts to reverse engineer their protocols with pengAOL being the only one I can remember off the top of my head.
In regard to using proprietary protocols, it isn't that AOL has some master plan to lock customers into this proprietary infrastructure, it is just the way AOL has evolved. Imagine for a second, that you worked at an ISP with 22 million customers (up to 35 million at your peak). There is a point where the open protocols just don't fit your needs any more. AOL simply patched a solution together that has been working ever since.