On Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:34:25 -0700 walt wrote:
> Very soon after being invited to open a gmail account, I discovered
> that google offers non-web-browser access to their free (as in beer)
> email servers.
>
> This puzzled me (still does) because it seems to violate google's basic
> business model, which is based on advertising revenue. (I never see an
> advertisement when sending/reading email via smtp/imap, obviously.)
1. Even with pop3/gmail users occasionally use web interface:
a) When travelling and location/country is changed, Google denies
pop3/smtp login saying "web access required". After web login
(possibly with two-factor auth) user needs to confirm new location.
b) In order to delete occasional spam messages as spam.
c) In order to look through spam folder and retrieve
false-positives. Unfortunately this happens sometimes.
2. Users are paying for services not only by reading ads, but with
their private data: contents of their e-mails, various profiles,
Google+ data and so on.
> Google has just introduced a 120-second delay before allowing login to
> their email servers. Just in the last day or two, literally.
>
> I can understand the delay for sending email (spammers) but why the
> same delay for reading email?
I use POP3 and SMTP for gmail daily, no delays here. Maybe your ISP
is doing something: either bug, or MitM or some other nasty things.
Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko
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