Travel Technology - GMail Will Soon Be Accessible Via Outlook For Free

One good reason to keep Outlook Express.

From CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/11/google.gmail.reut/index.html):

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Web search leader Google Inc. said on Wednesday it will soon make it possible for users of its free Gmail service to check their e-mail via Microsoft Outlook or on certain handheld devices such as mobile phones.

Google said it is adding POP, or post office protocol, access to Gmail for all users over the next couple of weeks. The move will enable Gmail users to download a copy of their messages through other e-mail programs, such as Outlook and Eudora, and devices that support POP.

Using POP access, Gmail users would also be able to view their messages offline.

Google said it already provides free automatic forwarding, which enables users to send incoming messages to the e-mail of their choice.

"We have no plans to charge for either feature," the company said.

Google, which had its much anticipated initial public offering in mid-August, recently has been adding address book and other features to its advertising-supported Gmail service launched this spring.

Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., which compete with Google in Web search, also offer rival free e-mail services.

People can access POP mail accounts for free through Yahoo Mail, but forwarding is available only as part of a premium mail service, a company spokeswoman said.

Representatives of Microsoft's Hotmail service were not immediately available to comment.

Google shares, which briefly topped $200 after debuting at $85, closed at $167.86 on the Nasdaq, off 84 cents, or 0.5 percent.

This was discussed to death over on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/2038234&tid=217&tid=1) and the consensus there is that it won't be free for long after Gmail exits Beta. Short of them actually injecting ads into your email, I don't see how this makes sense for Google.

winkydink, you're most likely right. They won't be able to put advertisements in Outlook like they do on the Web. On the other hand, they take a bit of pride in surpassing free Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts in every area. If they don't, they will lose sponsorship.

Opening POP makes them no better than Hotmail until Hotmail begins charging for POP access.

At any rate, temporary POP is better than no POP at all.

Check out http://www.freepops.org/ . I installed that for my friend the other day so he could get his Gmail into Outlook, and it works like a charm.

Just remember that it runs on port 2000 by default, not 110, so you need to tell Outlook that.

Awesome news! I've been using FreePOPs too, but would certainly welcome a specific GMAIL solution... this is great. :)

Check out http://www.freepops.org/ . I installed that for my friend the other day so he could get his Gmail into Outlook, and it works like a charm.

Just remember that it runs on port 2000 by default, not 110, so you need to tell Outlook that.


I've use the gmail pop3 access for a couple of weeks, but cannot get it to work on my ppc. Don't know why, the settings are the same. I don't know why one of my accounts has it, and the other doesn't., My account from, what March doesn't, but the one from May does.

As for gpops. and popgoesthegmail, etc., I used them several months ago, but they would break every few weeks as gmail changed their access, or page info or something other.

Does anyone know if the latest versions are working, reliably?

I'd really prefer if they gave IMAP access.

Boy taht would be SWEET!

But IMAP implimentation is much more SW and HW intensive than simple POP. Well not MUCH MUCH but with millions of users, more than any of the firms are getting in revenues.

I use fastmail.fm for that, for free it is nice.

Conceptually, since google is predicated upon the "search the one big honkin' inbox" model, IMAP is probably not on their radar (after all, since you don't have "folders," per se.....)

(yes, I know about tagging).