Gmail has finally dropped in IMAP support for retrieving emails using third party email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird. Prior to this, POP3 was the only way to retrieve our emails. IMAP is considered to be better than POP3 in several ways.

IMAP allows two way communication linking your Gmail account and email client. In simple words, if you read an email in email client or mobile, it will instantly be reflected on your Gmail account and marked as read. Similarly, if you put your email in a folder, say for example "Work", it will also be labeled as "Work" in your Gmail account.

IMAP is also better for those who access emails from more than one device. For instance, if you use the same email account to retrieve your emails at work, home or while traveling, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.

It seems like Gmail is slowly rolling it out to users. I just checked both my Gmail and Google Apps account, but I can't see the IMAP options yet. Google recommends IMAP over POP3, so reconfigure your email clients to retrieve emails using IMAP. Instructions for your email client can be obtained from here.

[Via: Google Blogoscoped]