<p>In a Thursday announcement, software giant Microsoft said that it has added support for Internet message access protocol (IMAP) to its Outlook. com webmail product, the company's revamped and modernized web-based email service.</p><p>With Outlook. com now supporting the IMAP protocol, standalone email clients will henceforth have the ability to access messages that have been stored on a remote mail server. In other words, it implies that the changes that they make to their inbox appear on other devices as well. For instance, if they mark a message as `read' on the email client of their PC, the message will show as `read' on their mobile handsets' email client too.</p><p>With IMAP having become an out-and-out email staple in a multi-device world of the present day, Microsoft's move to bring IMAP support to its Outlook. com service will chiefly enable Outlook to better challenge Google's popular Gmail email service.</p><p>In the wake of Microsoft's announcement which notes that "IMAP is widely supported on feature phones and other email clients such as those on a Mac," the addition of IMAP support to Outlook. com will apparently prompt Webmail users who are not totally committed to Microsoft to consider using Outlook. com.</p><p><a href="http://topnews.us/content/256930-microsoft-adds-imap-and-oauth-support-outlookcom">Keep reading...</a></p>