Can't use Google Apps without IMAP support - Updates & Announcements

Message from discussion Can't use Google Apps without IMAP support

Steve Tiilikainen

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More options Sep 11 2006, 9:34 pm

From: Steve Tiilikainen

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:34:30 -0000

Local: Mon, Sep 11 2006 9:34 pm

Subject: Re: Can't use Google Apps without IMAP support

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Gerard wrote:
> soho wrote:
> [...]
> > IMAP is indeed a must have feature for domain e-mail hosting
> > If they removed it from the suggestion page, it might be that they
> > decided to develop and add IMAP support to the next GAFYD release....

> Or abandoned the concept.

> --
> Gerard

Since IMAP is a directory structure (1..* directory:mail relationship)
and Gmail uses a labeling scheme (*..* label:mail relationship), there
is no way to implement Gmail in IMAP without either changing the
labeling scheme or causing the message to show up in more than one IMAP
folder. Neither solution is ideal.

As for the other problems with IMAP... (c/p from Wikipedia)

* IMAP is a very heavy and complicated protocol. Implementing IMAP
is more difficult and error-prone than implementing POP3 for both
client and server implementations. This can result in security issues
which are less likely under POP3.

* IMAP generally results in higher server loads than POP3,
resulting in higher costs for ISPs and end users.

* Server-side searches can potentially use lots of server resources
when searching massive mailboxes.

I can very much understand why Google would choose POP3 under these
circumstances.

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