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Why not? If an IMAP client issues a "SEARCH TEXT foobar" command, why shouldn't Gmail answer as fast and as well as it does online? Nothing in IMAP precludes good efficient search.

Reference: RFC 1730@6.4.4

In fact, it probably does. Also, Gmail IMAP has an IMAP extension to allow using Gmail's full search syntax if desired (https://developers.google.com/gmail/imap_extensions).

Google wants you to use the web interface, or their own mobile apps.

Have you tried something like:

http://wiki.dovecot.org/Plugins/FTS ?

so?

seriously. it does a better job than an old nx mbox, or other technology. i'm not trying to say it's not better, it's just amazing how impatient we've gotten in the last decade, and how much we've bought into "googlethink"