Google will roll out POP3 support gradually over the coming weeks to Gmail users, who will be able to use the feature to download e-mail messages from Gmail servers to e-mail applications on devices such as PCs and wireless devices.

With POP3 support, users will be able to transfer their server-based Gmail messages to a client-side e-mail application such as Microsoft's Outlook and have the messages stored on their local hard drive and thus accessible when they are offline. Users with wireless devices that have POP3-compliant e-mail clients will also be able to download their Gmail messages to personal digital assistants or cell phones.

Google is also working on adding an anti-virus scanning feature to the Web mail service, possibly by licensing a technology, and developing an HTML interface that would make Gmail compatible with browsers that don't support JavaScript. Currently, only JavaScript-enabled browsers can access Gmail, which uses JavaScript extensively.

These and other possible enhancements, such as adding further wireless device support through Wireless Application Protocol or Extensible HTML, are part of Google's attempt to eventually make Gmail, which is still being beta tested, the most feature-rich Web mail service available, a Google executive said.

"We want to make it the best e-mail service in every single dimension so you have absolutely no reason to use any other," said Georges Harik, who is in charge of new projects at Google and whose title is director of Googlettes, the term the company uses to refer to this type of effort.

While the POP3 support is an important feature to have, Gmail must gain calendaring and schedule-management features, which competitors already offer to complement Web mail services, said Teney Takahashi, an analyst at The Radicati Group. For example, Yahoo's Web mail service offers a calendaring system that integrates with various versions of Microsoft's Outlook, Takahashi said.

"Right now, Gmail is very good at managing mail but I'd like to see the service extended to other areas of your daily life: managing your schedule and possibly being able to synchronize that with your desktop client, like Outlook, would be very valuable," Takahashi said.

Google should also consider moving Gmail out of its beta-testing phase and into final release soon, so that it's generally available and not only by invitation from the company, which is the only way to get a Gmail account right now, Takahashi said. The POP3 support may signal that Google is getting close to the final-release stage, he said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.