Although POP is ubiquitous, IMAP is the better choice for handling mail in many cases.

Alternatively, you could set up a POP-only E-mail account for Gmail, where your messages are automatically forwarded from your main account to the POP-only account.

There have also been pleas to have such a browser-based mail client work well without having to disable pop-up blockers, and to work well even when connected over dial-up connections.