Gmail's become the web-based email client that people swear by. What started off as a strong offering of email in the cloud, has become a robust platform that now includes undo send, cool Gmail Labs features like Send & Archive, offline support, and Google search.
One thing holding Gmail back has been the inability to migrate contacts and emails from other providers. Thankfully that's about to change. Starting today, import options will be available to new Gmail accounts, and dolled out to the rest of us on a rolling basis.
You'll know when you have the new Gmail import options as soon as you see the "Accounts and Import" tab in your Gmail settings. There you can opt to import contacts, mail, and new mail for the next 30 days from Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and other POP3 accounts. You can even apply a label to all imported mail.
The only downside to today's news is that Google Apps users — businesses and educational institutions — won't get the new import options. Still, this is a welcome addition to the Gmail service that we know many of you have been wanting for years.