Gmail helps you migrate from other e-mail services
Correction: This article was updated at 11:10 PDT to remove the statement that AOL doesn't allow using non-AOL e-mail clients to access its e-mail, which is untrue.
It's been a challenge to persuade my friends to move on from AOL. It's not because I am not convincing enough (I am!), it's just that it's impossible for them to move their e-mail archive and contacts to a new non-AOL account.
(Credit:
Gmailblog)
But now my persuasion level has just been raised a notch as Gmail announced Wednesday a new feature that helps make the move easier.
Gmail now migrates e-mail and contacts from other providers, including Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and a few dozen others. This means you can still view those special messages sent to the old account in your new Gmail account.
The new migration feature also lets you have your messages forwarded from your old account for 30 days, giving you time to inform those on your contact list about the new e-mail address. Of course, in my own experience, you can always go back and check the old account once in a while in case that person you never expect to hear from writes you again after years of zero correspondence.
For AOL users, by the way, you don't need to install the AOL software, which tends to slow down your computer and your Internet connection significantly, to check its e-mail; you can do that just by going to the Web site and log-in with your e-mail address and password.
Chad Parry, a Gmail engineer, said that for now the new feature is only available to newly created Gmail accounts. But soon, in matter of days, it will be available to all existing accounts. You'll know this when you see the "Accounts and Import" tab, which used to be called just "Accounts," under the "Settings" section of your Gmail account.
(Credit:
Gmailblog)
This new migration feature, unfortunately, won't be available for schools and businesses using Google Apps. The reason for this, I believe, is that these entities tend to use e-mail addresses ending in their own domain instead of gmail.com.
Prior to this, you could always export your old account's contact to a CSV file then import it into Gmail, and you can still do that now. However, this new feature offers a much simpler way for importing them. It also offers the option to import the e-mail archive, which is very important.
I don't know about other e-mail providers, but AOL and Yahoo users should definitely take this opportunity to move on. AOL software is notoriously horrible in many ways, and Yahoo still charges you a yearly fee if you want to use a standard e-mail client to check e-mail, which is ridiculous.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
I'm no fan of AOL, but I don't appreciate spreading untruths about any company or person.
AOL offers *both* POP and IMAP: http://tr.im/lm3Z
The best setup for email I have found so far is: use AOL for site registration, they move mail to old messages often enough that your inbox cleans out itself, while still being able to recover login info and use Gmail for personal communications that you want to retain.
#1: Contact App -- it's an afterthought. No birthday or anniversary fields that integrate with the Calendar App. You have to maintain those important dates separately in the Calendar App. Huge oversight.
#2: With Exchange, you can assign expiration dates to individual email messages and make them actionable. On the date they expire, their header line turns to bold red print and a day past expiration, they turn gray with a line through them. Visually, this does a lot to help with inbox/folder management.
Overall, I liked Gmail -- but using it is more 'work' than using Exchange/Outlook.
I still won't switch. I use Yahoo (though I've seen AOL's new stuff - and it's great, minus the "Old Mail"/"New Mail" boxes) and still prefer the traditional layout of messages.
I find Gmail's conversation style, threaded inbox - annoying and frustrating. I prefer to receive my email one message at a time. I know how to sort by subject or by sender and look back on old messages. I don't need it in conversation style.
Also - while I like Gmail's label system, in that I can label a message with more than one label - I prefer folders. I like move a message out of my inbox and into a folder.
Plus - it's another download. On yahoo, it looks the same no matter where I go, No Download required.
A long time AOL was cool. Then it became cool to slam AOL (and admittedly they deserved it). But you know what's cool now? Thinking for yourself without preconceived prejudices about AOL or any other company.
AOL Mail/Webmail is quite honestly a really good product and it offers free IMAP/POP support just like Gmail. My only gripe is that they don't offer a paid option to remove the advertising.
- by islandgirl45cv May 15, 2009 2:30 PM PDT
- If it only grabs the Inbox, that's not good. I would have to move all my folders to the Inbox if I wanted to switch. Not sure I could move them as folders rather than separate email messages.
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(19 Comments)You'd think if Google was going to offer this long-requested feature, the company would have configured it to retrieve all the other service's mail and recreate it in a similar structure on Gmail so nothing was lost in the process.