Having an email client that is built-in to the browser is one of those things that you either love or hate. Both the Opera and SeaMonkey browsers include this functionality out-of-the-box, but if all you’re looking for is basic emailing capabilities you may have to look no further than a Firefox extension. The Simple Mail extension brings POP, IMAP, and SMTP support to Firefox.
What’s nice is that when I went to add my Gmail account to Simple Mail it automatically adjusted the settings to match what I needed to connect to Gmail’s IMAP server. It automatically recognized my email address and did the dirty work for me, which saved me from having to dig around looking for the settings I needed. I couldn’t find a list of services it supports with this feature, but Gmail is definitely one of them.
One of the things that really impressed me right off the bat was the search capabilities. The search box is in the upper-right corner, and it filters the results as you type. I know, this isn’t the first email client to show live search results, but what makes it just a tad bit better is that it also highlights the matching portions of the email as you’re typing.
For some odd reason the IMAP support doesn’t seem to be implemented as I would expect it to be. For example, Simple Mail does not grab the labels from my Gmail account and turn them into folders as most email clients would. Plus when I archived a message in Simple Mail it remained in my Gmail account’s Inbox. So it doesn’t mirror your actions like a normal email client would with an IMAP account, but I guess that is part of the “simplicity.”
Get Simple Mail for Firefox
Thanks Mark for the tip!
If it weren’t for the fact I have so much stuff store in TBird, I might just start using this instead. I did manage to get myself down to 1 POP3 email account this week instead of the 3 I use to have. But then I opened up a ymail account in addition to my Windows Live.
This extension is the one that tipped me over from Opera to Firefox, excellent.
I have been using this extension for a few months now. However, as you pointed out Ryan, IMAP implementation does not work. Which is a pity because it means you cannot use it with Gmail. There is no synchronization whatsoever between Gmail’s server and Simple Mail, which is what IMAP is all about!
Thanks for this information, Ryan. After I tried out Firefox 3 I was very surprised that Mozilla was able to create a fair-usage browser. I used Firefox every single minute… but then I tried out Opera again and after 2! minutes I completely deleted my Firefox directory. Never in my live I will go back to Firefox.
Starting up Opera takes 2 seconds (3 GB RAM, VISTA), Firefox took more than 10 seconds. 10 web pages (in tabs) open = 50 MB Opera… Firefox 250! MB.
And before I was using Gmail with Firefox… since I switched back to Opera I am using the internal mail application and I have to admit… NOTHING BEATS OPERA 9.5 :-o
Goodbye Firefox!!!
@It’s Meee
I completely agree with all your points. I use both browsers. As for the “fair-usage” Firefox, well to me it seems pretty heavy for a browser (especially bearing in mind the fact that it is *just* a browser with no mail/irc client, etc.)
As they say, “The taste is in the pudding”. I’ve tried Opera on several occasions, and always go back to Firefox and Flock. Opera is not able to render many of my websites properly.
Besides, Opera’s forums are so cold and unfriendly. As far as I’m concerned, Goodbye Opera!
An add-on that competes with another product the (firefox) developers make, got to love the internet :)
(and before you call me crazy for comparing this to Thunderbird…what I mean is that *in principle and for all intents and purposes* that is what Simple Mail is doing, not featurewise, etc.)
That’s normally how email addresses work… close one account and open another. ;) I can’t even remember half of the email addresses that I have.
Yeah, I was a little perplexed as to how they consider it IMAP access when nothing synchronizes.
Opera has always been very good about having a fast startup time, and that’s something I love about the browser. When it comes to memory usage I have found that Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5 are nearly equal though.
I used to use the MSN browser for email and web. I ‘m looking for something that will work the same way. Is there anything out there that does this. I know the program had its share of bugs but it was easy for my husband. He complains about our current email set up which if firefox and thunderbird. He liked being able to check email with out having to open another program. the email had other options he liked like being able to change the back ground easily
I switched from Firefox to Opera and haven’t looked back. Several things were bugging me about Firefox: it would get stuck if I loaded more than 4 or 5 pdfs in the browser, most of the add-ons would be incompatible and disabled after each update. When I learned that support for Thunderbird was being discontinued, I decided to ditch Mozilla. I still keep my mail archive in Thunderbird, as a temporary thing, but I only sync it about once a week, the rest of the time I use Opera, no outdated extensions, no frozen pdf downloads, and the integrated email client is absolutely superb. In today’s world, where you check your emails on several machines every day (your smartphone, your smartpad, your work computer, your personal computer, your spouse’s computer, etc. it’s difficult to live without imap. I’ll need an awful lot more than this to switch back to Firefox from Opera.