Google will gradually roll out POP3 (Post Office Protocol) support over the coming weeks to users of its Gmail service, allowing them to use the feature to download e-mail messages from Gmail servers to e-mail applications on devices such as PCs and wireless handhelds.

With POP3 support, a user will be able to transfer server-based Gmail messages to a client-side e-mail application such as Microsoft's Outlook and have the messages stored on a local hard drive, where they will be accessible when the user is offline. Users with wireless devices that have POP3-compliant e-mail clients will be able to download their Gmail messages to personal digital assistants or cell phones, too.

Google is working on adding an antivirus-scanning feature to the Web mail service--possibly by licensing an existing technology--and on developing an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) interface to make Gmail compatible with browsers that don't support JavaScript. Currently, only JavaScript-enabled browsers can access Gmail, which uses JavaScript extensively.