Google has again "upped the ante" in the free webmail game by offering free IMAP access for Gmail accounts.

Unlike POP access*, which Gmail has offered for some time now, IMAP syncs Gmail automatically with any and all email programs. This means changes made in one email will be reflected across all email organization programs utilized by the user.
If a user has five new messages and reads just a few, relegating the rest to folders, the changes will appear on "webmail from work, your iPhone on the road, and Thunderbird at home," according to Ars Technica.

Offering IMAP to all shows that Google is still going strong, as it demands a lot of bandwidth and processing power to run.

After providing massive storage in kind, Yahoo and Microsoft will again have to play catch-up depending on how customers react to the new feature.

*Google provides a help page clearing up differences between POP and IMAP.