How does the e-mail notification in my Web browser work?
Several web browsers have extensions or options that let people know when e-mail is waiting in one or more of their inboxes. Other e-mail notification programs run independently and display a message or icon when e-mail arrives. But how do these programs work? E-mail notification programs are very similar to the clients commonly used to send and receive e-mail. The difference is that e-mail notification applications are written specifically to check and report whether any new mail is on the server. Some programs allow people to read and even answer their mail, and others simply display a link that connects people to a web mail interface. In general, however, e-mail notification programs don’t have the ability to save mail to disk or to organize messages into folders. Here’s how most e-mail notification programs work: • The user configures the program with usernames and passwords from web mail (like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail), Post
