November 5, 2008
What is IMAP and Why Do We Use It?
There aren't many industry acronyms it helps to know about, but IMAP is one of them. The words the letters stand for, Internet Message Access Protocol, don't exactly cause the heart to leap, but the protocol itself defines a promise that matters a lot to anyone who handles their mail from more than one location. The promise boils down to this: whenever you go to your inbox and other folders, no matter from where, things will be exactly as you last left them, no matter from where. And that's why we use it for MobileMe email accounts.
The protocol puts what's on the cloud (server) in charge. It lets you access your account and work with it locally from a variety of places via different applications. But it insists that the master copy be kept on the server and that all changes be recorded there, so that each new log-in produces the inbox and folder contents you expect to see. In the other standard messaging protocol, POP, the local copy is primary, and when you access your mail it is generally removed from the server after being copied down to your local inbox. If you access your messages from more than one place, life can get confusing--a message you want to read on the road might have already been downloaded to a different computer or a filing change you make at work won't be reflected back at home.
With an IMAP account things just work the way you'd expect from the way they look, so you don't have to think about it. It's got the possibility of "mobile" built into its core. If you haven't set up your computer, iPhone, or iPod touch with your MobileMe IMAP account yet, check out these instructions.
