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Gmail Adds POP3 To Email Accounts
VaultX writes "Gmail has recently added POP3 services to their free email accounts. This would allow someone to use gmail without ever seeing any of their advertisements. They are also providing SMTP, both POP3 and SMTP are forcing the use of SSL/TLS. Very interesting...now where's IMAP and what's the catch?" It's being phased in, though, so not every gmail account yet has POP access.
My guess is that they'll inject adverts in to your e-mail when you download it using pop. The move wouldn't make sense otherwise.
Simon.
Fantastic! I can finally use gmail on my PDAphone... Google doesn't support gmail on PocketPC... but I can d/l my mail to my desktop mail prog, then sync that way. Bravo Google. Keep pumpin.
I already have plenty of POP3 accounts. I would use Gmail if it has a nice way to read messages there. The webmail I get from my various ISPs isn't very good - Gmail is better.
sulli
RTFJ.
Of course, you can select "leave on server" but POP client software really can't take advantage of all that stored email. Desktop search, or even an online Google search, while logged-in, could draw from all of those old emails even while you filed and deleted to your heart's content with your local copy in your POP client.
Very sneaky indeed!
Again, this only works because Google is golden. If MS or AOL announced that they were going to keep a permanent record of all of your email, whether you deleted it or not with your client, would raise a firestorm!
The people who use POP3 are much cheaper just because they won't be using 1GB.
Google can probably aim to get a 10th of the revenue off of a POP3 user compared to a web mail user.
Also, Google is entering a mature market. They have to really stand out if they want to persuade users to move from other web mail systems.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
Google would do well to start turning themselves into an all-in-one computing provider. This may portend the next step.
... it is my hope that Google has what it takes to finally relegate the PC to the junk heap where it belongs.
Nobody has figured out better than Google how to turn a zillion servers into the world's biggest distributed mainframe. Search and mail could be just the beginning. Google has built a platform upon which any variety of multiuser, Internet-wide applications can be built. Yesterday, it was search; today, it is mail; tomorrow... who knows? Maybe an office suite with built-in document management? Wasn't Microsoft supposed to have done this by now? (Hint: they can't because they're saddled with millions of lines of legacy crud.) Google can. Google has the know-how to truly put computing behind the glass again, where it belongs. And once they've delivered it to your desktop computer, they can deliver it to your phone, your set-top box, your refrigerator
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
One thing I've noticed recently, that I don't remember from before, when you log out, it now says your full e-mail address (user@gmail.com) where previously I thought it just said the username. I don't remember for sure, but I think this is something new.
This makes me wonder, is it possible Google will be adding support for other domains? Maybe you'll be able to get a Gmail address for free, but if you buy your own domain, you can use Google/Gmail for your mail server (either free or with a slight cost). That would be pretty neat, especially with this recent development of POP3 support.
I can imagine Google selling a rackmount Gmail appliance (to go along with the search appliance) for businesses, free @gmail.com accounts for everyone, and free/cheap mail hosting (with your own domain) for power users.
Who knows, that is just my speculation.
Andrew
They completely rewrote all of office as a broswer based application suite. They evaluated it internally against Office XP and apparently Office XP won. Now, we'll never know why XP won. I suspect that it was deemed more profitable than the browser based alternative. It would take a lot of work to get companies to switch over to a browser based office suite, especially if it meant that the coperate data was going to be stored on external servers.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
So if gmail allows pop3 and smtp, I should now be able to send an encrypted email to another Gmail account or receive one in mine and Google will not be able to parse since they will not have access to the key pair.
Does anyone know if Google has put anything in place to prevent pre-encrypting email or are they just assuming that the majority of the people using their service will not bother with this?
I make my face look like this and concerned words come out.
Okay, this is an issue I've been trying to figure out for quite sometime. I'n currently locked-in to an old hotmail account because:
1. I cant use the email my ISP provides beacause once I leave them its over.
2. One of the unfortunate side-effects of the web is that everyone uses email addresses for verification. At this point a migration away from hotmail to gmail (or whoever) is a serious work-load and would cause all sorts of problems.
3. I get pop access through the Hot Popper program.
So, what are some alternatives? Maybe there can be a publically funded email service for "identification purposes," but I really dont want to depend on the whim of congress for funding. PBS/NPR get treated like shit, and I would expect them to do the same to "socialized" email.
Maybe we really a geek backed, volunteer email service running as a non-profit. For a nominal fee (or even free) you can have an email address for life. This can be given to the public trust like how ICANN (not the best example) run the internet/domain names.
If gmail does offer pop3, Id like to get off hotmail, but both solutions means if these companies go bankrupt or change their policies in some way that affects me negatively then I'm screwed.
Also, very few of these email outlets even defend freedom of speech. I believe I'm more protected than most because Im a paying hotmail customer, but if I were to reply to a spammer or someone I'm angry at with "fuck you," then I might be subject to account termination. That's not right.
Or perhaps this could be solved with a better TOS/Contract. An email provider who puts aside x amount of money in a savings account to defend a "if we go bankrupt we will run for 6 months as you migrate" policy will get my money, and probably lots of others.