GMAIL offers POP3 access now; this means you can now use your regular email client like MS Outlook, Outlook Express or Mozilla's Thunderbird to download your emails off GMAIL!

The odd thing is that it's offered in phases (some have it already and some don't) and so it may or may not be available for you yet.

I maintain 2 mailboxes on GMAIL. The one I use most often already allows me to download my emails via POP3 while the other doesn't.

If you want to know if your mailbox allows you to have this functionality, just click on Settings and look for the Forwarding and POP link.

http://www.google.com/gmail/help/whatsnew.html

Looks like its getting to be about time when I start using my GMail account...

Thank you so much JDS for your tip. I have had gmail for two months and never realized that it had POP access. I don't think it was available when I first got it. I was using gpopper, which can be a little quirky at times.

Once again thank you, you made my day! :-o

My account just got POP access last week. I've set it up in Opera, so now I never have to leave my browser to do 80% of my computer stuff (I use the other 20% to program; boy, it would be great if I could do that in a browser too!)

It's nice that Gmail doesn't charge for POP access (yet), unlike Yahoo and Hotmail. A nice bit of customer service and satisfaction.

I think that "yet" is the key word in that phrase. I am a big fan of gmail, but they aren't giving people 1 GB of storage space out of the goodness of their hearts. There whole mail is tied to addsense.

Speaking of which, I love seeing some of things it brings up

Google possibly charging for POP3 access? Frankly, the thought never even crossed my mind...

I doubt very much that Google is that cheap. I hope they never prove me wrong.