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AOL Mail To Be Accessible Via IMAP

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the move-in-right-direction dept.

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."

21 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Hey Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can delete the 99% spam I get in my AOL inbox faster!

  2. Finally by Andreas(R) · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is one less reason to make fun of aol users :)

    1. Re:Finally by DR+SoB · · Score: 5, Funny

      Haha! No more, "Hey AOL, 1994 called, they want their email service back!"

      --
      Mod +5 Drunk
    2. Re:Finally by elwell642 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Right. One down, 5.28 million to go.

      --

      <insert witty linux comment here>

  3. Wish AIM were next by cygnusx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Wish AIM were next by osewa77 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Locking in your customers to a product, even if it's not in the best interest of those customers, especially when you have the ability to open things up, is at best a short term strategy. As a company, you're trading goodwill for money. To succeed with this strategy, you hope you're in a market where the monetary value of the goodwill you lose doesn't exceed the extra money you get from the lock-in. You hope you don't have a company like Google or Microsoft (in compete mode) that is intent on giving the customer the best deal even if it costs more! Else you have to just open up like AOL just did. At least GMail won't be providing IMAP. my two cents.

  4. And the best IMAP Client is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mozilla Thunderbird. They've even recently added IMAP IDLE support! (It's in the nightlies.)

    1. Re:And the best IMAP Client is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you're wondering what IMAP IDLE is, and why you should care, read this review of IMAP email clients -- by an MS developer who works on their email software (the review's conclusion may surprise you).

  5. what speed by jacquesm · · Score: 4, Funny

    The lightning speed with which AOL makes new technology available to their users has always amazed me !

    --
    MP3 Search Engine
  6. important question... by spangineer · · Score: 5, Funny

    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"?

  7. Egads... by RareHeintz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow. It's like they want to be a real ISP or something.

    --
    http://www.bradheintz.com/
    - updated
  8. Unofficial AOL Email FAQ by bcolflesh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Accessing the AOL Mail System using
    IMAP & Authenticated SMTP
    An Unofficial Guide

  9. AOL Communicator by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

  10. new mail by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    "You've got standards-based mail!"

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  11. But who'd use it? by go3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Too bad that most people who would understand how to setup an IMAP account on Outlook quit AOL years ago.

  12. Hello? what news? by 0BoDy · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?
  13. Funny comment on NPR by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:Funny comment on NPR by Allen+Varney · · Score: 4, Funny
      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.

      Try the decaf, friend. I have my own domain and I still use my AOL e-mail address -- because I've had that same address for over a decade, and changing it would be bad for my business.

      Hey, I'm an AOL subscriber AND I have a lower Slashdot ID than you! If your brain was screaming before, that must make your brain want to choke. If it turns out my karma is better than yours, will your brain commit hara-kiri?

  14. New Direction? by emc · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  15. Re:AOL on the outs by bhtooefr · · Score: 4, Informative

    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).

  16. Re:IP stack and access to AOL content by wawannem · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.