HOW TO: Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client
Gmail’s IMAP support roll-out this week had nerds all atwitter about the possibility of synchronized email access across devices, computers, and clients. IMAP is far superior to regular old POP for fetching your messages and maintaining your folder list whether you’re on your iPhone, office or home computer.
If IMAP’s got you curious but you’re not sure what desktop application to use with Gmail, consider the extensible, fast, cross-platform and free Mozilla Thunderbird, our beloved Firefox’s little sibling. Here’s how to get the full Gmail experience in Thunderbird with IMAP. What’s IMAP? Internet Message Access Protocol (Wikipedia page) enables email programs to read messages stored on the server. Unlike POP, with IMAP it’s as if you’re browsing a network drive of files on a remote server with an open, live connection to that server; whenever you open a folder or view a message, it’s displayed from that server live. IMAP maintains a constant connection with your server and updates real-time. Geek To Live: Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client