Now you’ve got an even better reason to ditch Hotmail (or “Windows Live Mail” as it’s now known). As the Google Operating System blog reports, in May Gmail rolled-out a handy new feature for new users that enabled them to import mail from other online e-mail accounts such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL and many other webmail or POP3 accounts. The good news is now it’s available to everyone 🙂
Previously, the only way to import Hotmail into Gmail was via third party applications such as Izzymail which could be both time consuming to setup and compromise your security somewhat.
Here is how to do it:
Log into your Gmail account. Click on “Settings” in the top right corner of the screen. Then click on the “Accounts and Import” tab:
Click on “Import mail and contacts” and then enter the e-mail address and password of the account you want to import mail from. Then select exactly what you want to import:
Click “Start Import” and you’re done! A hell of a lot easier than using a third party app.
Note that the import process can’t be stopped once it’s started even if you log out of Gmail. You can see the status of the import process by clicking on the “Accounts and Import” tab again at any time. Messages may also take up to 48 hours before they finally appear in your inbox. Once it’s complete, you’ll see a confirmation e-mail in your inbox. Note that this service is not yet available for Google Apps for Your Domain as it’s aimed primarily as non-business customers.
