Gmail Delivers POP Support

You can now download Gmail messages through your favorite POP3 email program, which should thrill a lot of people. The Gmail POP FAQ is here, and explains that the rollout will take a few weeks, as some accounts get it earlier than others (I already have it, so it can't be that slow). It works with Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Windows), Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Mac), Outlook 2003, Entourage 2004, Entourage X, Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Sponsored & Paid Mode), Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Light Mode), Netscape Mail 7.x, Netscape Mail 6.2, Netscape Mail 4.5, 4.6, or 4.7, Apple Mail, Mozilla 1.7, and Thunderbird 0.x. Google offers no information on possible IMAP access. This move is in contrast to Hotmail's recent move to discontinue free Outlook access for Hotmail.

Gizmodo reports that people are already having problems:

Text for their configuration instructions is incomplete, make sure to use port 995 for pop.gmail.com and to enable SSL. One current drawback is that mail sent from the web client appears in the Inbox.

Marketing VOX reports that Google might be offering this, which some would call a premium service, in order to attract more users. An employee of Return Path notes in his blog that of their 16 million subscribers, they only saw 2,396 new Gmail users in September, compared with 50,000-100,000 new Yahoo and Hotmail subs per month. Also, Gmail has a high churn rate; 741 users left Gmail that month, meaning Gmail loses a subscriber for every three it gains.
(via Dirson, Search Engine Lowdown)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 11/10/2004 04:47:00 PM