2010-12-07, 12:34 AM
The way I see it is that POP is client sided storage and IMAP is server sided storage.
If you have a well established mail software, eg Thunderbird, Lotus Note etc (note that I am not saying they're good), that you use to check your mail 24/7, then POP is your preferred method, as it downloads the email once, you sort it however you want with your client and it puts less load on your mail server. However, if you dont, and you want to be able to access your email using different programs eg webmail, then it is best to use IMAP for them.
If you have a well established mail software, eg Thunderbird, Lotus Note etc (note that I am not saying they're good), that you use to check your mail 24/7, then POP is your preferred method, as it downloads the email once, you sort it however you want with your client and it puts less load on your mail server. However, if you dont, and you want to be able to access your email using different programs eg webmail, then it is best to use IMAP for them.