Gareth Stack

Gmail receives email from other accounts

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Gareth Stack

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Google have just begun rolling out a terrific feature, which allows users to grab email from other accounts (work, yahoo etc) via POP3. This could be a godsend for users glued to horrible proprietary corporate email accounts with ineffective spam filters, or anyone tired of multiple simultaneous email logins, who for whatever reason (multiple desktops, mobile access etc) need to use web email rather than a stand alone client. Combining this feature with Gmail’s existing ‘Send mail as’, allows your Gmail to now be used as your central email.

To access the feature, log into your Gmail, click ‘Settings’, and open the ‘Accounts’ tab. This feature is not yet available on my account, so don’t be too surprised if you don’t currently have it enabled.

Via: Techcrunch.

Addendum: Normally I wouldn’t repost a story from such a widely read source, but I actually received news of this in an email and had the post written before I did a citation search, so what the hey!

TCD email users may still forward their email, ridding themselves of the horrible kludge of Trinity email altogether.

2 responses to “Gmail receives email from other accounts”

  1. Bernie Goldbach Avatar
    Bernie Goldbach

    I think it’s a cool move forward for Gmail and wonder what you think of companies that block access to all external browser-based mail and force people to use only their mail clients during the normal day.

    Reply
  2. Gareth Stack Avatar
    Gareth Stack

    It’s a hard one to call, with increasing Orwellian rules regarding data retention by companies, US companies in particular may have no choice in restricting email access to their internal clients (it will interesting to see how Google adapts their Apps product to meet this challenge) .

    It does seem obvious that companies, particularly but not exclusively in the IT industry, who restrict their employees access to the web in general, cut themselves off from awareness of competition. However, anyone whose worked in an office environment will be aware of the enormous drain on productivity net access can become. Hell, that extends to colleges, schools and everyday life as well. Corporate culture is probably important here, as an enabling workplace which values and promotes individual responsibility, and has mechanisms to track and reward it, will be in a better position to take advantage of web access.

    In relation to your original question, companies are probably going to find it increasingly difficult to allow access to webmail (or even external mail accounts) for their employees during the day. As society becomes increasingly interconnected, and social networks more ubiquitous and mainstream, this creates an inevitable tension. Hell though, if works accept mandatory drug testing, and no fault dismissal laws, I should think cutting off employee access to personal email will quickly (if it hasn’t already) become an accepted corporate practice.

    Reply

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