Allowing them to finally get rid of their old accounts

Aug 20, 2009 12:54 GMT  ·  By

Gmail is growing steadily and is now the number three email service in the US as well as the rest of the world, at least in the number of active monthly users. But it is still a relatively new service and it's only going to get harder for it to get even more users to switch. One reason why users might be reluctant to give up their old account is the number of contacts they have saved so Google introduced a new tool a few months ago that allowed new users to import their contacts and mail from other accounts. Now the company has decided to release the feature for existing users as well.

“People new to Gmail benefit most from being able to move their stuff with them. Friends who wanted to use Gmail but kept telling us how painful it would be finally made the switch!,” Marcin Brodziak, Google software engineer, explained the reasoning behind the new feature.

“But many old time Gmail users (including us) also have old accounts lurking. Often, these accounts predate Gmail, and occasionally we have to log into them to look at some old confirmation email or find the email address for someone with whom we've lost touch.”

Using the new feature is pretty straightforward. There is a new Accounts and import tab in the Settings page that lets users manage this feature. Clicking “Import mail and contacts” will bring up a window with a wizard set up to guide users through the importing process. Then they can import the saved contacts but also all of the emails received up to that point.

Optionally users can choose to continue to import new incoming mail from the old account for an additional 30 days. Transferring all of the emails may take several days and even a week but Google assures its users that it all eventually arrives. There were other options of importing the old contacts but this new feature simplifies the process and also allows users to import mail from services that don't use POP3, like the US version of Yahoo Mail.