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Google added support for IMAP connections to Gmail, however it will be some time before it shows up in every Gmail user's settings. IMAP, short for Internet Message Access Protocol, enables someone using a desktop mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook to retrieve messages from a remote server across the Internet. A straightforward service, quicker than POP3, but one that Google had not provided until now.

Germano Caronni, the Google software engineer who helped develop IMAP for Gmail, talked about its capabilities on the official Google blog:

Plenty of devices you use every day can take advantage of IMAP, a technology that lets you keep all your email in sync automatically as you read and sort it. Your smart phone most likely supports it, as does your PDA, laptop, desktop computer, etc. To learn more about IMAP, please have a look at the Gmail Blog, which describes it in more detail, or the Gmail Help Center, which explains exactly how to set it up. And if you have an iPhone, check out our "What's New" page to learn how to start using IMAP in a matter of minutes.

It's interesting that Caronni mentions mobile devices, especially since many people expect Google to unveil such a device, a Gphone, that arrives with plenty of Google applications on-board. We contend this product, if it does arrive, won't be as important as the network that supports it.

IMAP is an always-on technology. For Gmail account holders who like receiving their Gmail messages fast on a PC-based email client, IMAP means messages arrive virtually immediately after hitting Gmail. No waiting for the POP3 check to take place.

That's the benefit of IMAP, and why it makes a Google Network sound more likely. Typical wireless carriers might balk at thousands of Gphone clients throwing IMAP traffic on their networks, judging by this disadvantage listed on the IMAP page at Wikipedia:

IMAP4 clients need to explicitly request new email message content potentially causing additional delays on slow connections such as those commonly used by mobile devices.

A fast network wouldn't have this issue. We know Google and Sprint are working together to make Google the default portal on Sprint's WiMAX service, Xohm. But Xohm is in jeopardy due to its $5 billion price tag, and Sprint's continued outflow of subscribers.

IMAP promises good synchronization with all of a Gmail user's devices; read a message on one device, and all the other gadgets know about it. We're interested in seeing just how far Google may take its promise. All the way to GoogleNet, and ad-supported wireless Internet/VoIP/IMAP, perhaps?