I've been writing a bit about Google's eMail and calendar solutions lately, and in my last post I mentioned that Gmail doesn't provide IMAP access. I think of this as a down side to Gmail and a black mark against it as I work to decide whether or not I want to use this as my primary source of eMail. I decided to ponder the reasons why a bit and eventually the answer seemed to present itself.

In my last post, I also mentioned that Gmail uses labels rather than folders. Google doesn't want an IMAP user creating a folder that their webmail application doesn't support.

I think the end of the story is that Google needs to release an API so that users can write a plugin for their favorite email client to allow access. Only time will tell whether or not they do it.

In the mean time, my decision has not yet been made.