GMail IMAP

Rumour has it that Google is integrating IMAP into GMail but it is not available to all GMail users yet. Only select few users have IMAP in GMail. I believe if this is true, Google is doing their bit of testing before releasing IMAP to all.

IMAP over POP3

POP3 sucks all emails from server to client. IMAP maintains a copy of the email on the server. This has benefits over POP3 in the sense that if you are not at a desktop to retrieve your email, a copy is always on the server and you can use a web client to look at your email. Most ISPs use POP3 over IMAP because it is easier to maintain and there is less issue of hard disk storage for growing mailboxes.

I will be listening to the net and will update this once I hear anything more certain about GMail IMAP.