Ajax vs IMAP: FIGHT!

I know lots of folks who use IMAP because it makes their client Less Important. The idea is that they can burn their system to the ground and calmly skip their way to another machine without missing a beat (er, dropping a message).

Webmail clients are only getting better, and have already hit the replace-desktop-client stage for some folks (others are merely impressed). Of course “great webmail” is low-hanging fruit since “great desktop mail” tends to incite guffaws.

When a server is vending your entire mail application, a lot of the luster of IMAP’s pure-play one-mailbox-to-rule-them fades.

I’m not predicting outright death, but I do predict that right now we’re at IMAP’s pinnacle. It’s only downhill from here, as great webmail reduces the need for a protocol supporting multiple simultaneous clients. You’ll only have one server-side client, and won’t even miss IMAP.

(Before you write, yes I know about the joy of disconnected operation. The majority doesn’t mind leaving email behind when there isn’t a web browser around.)

Saturday, December 17, 2005
12:00 AM