Regardless of your thoughts on the company that is trying to index everything in the world to place relevant ads next to them, Google makes some fine web products. I’ve recently switched from the much beloved Microsoft Outlook to Gmail after five years of using the former product for my email, contacts, and calendaring. Here’s how I made the switch:

Imports. I’ve imported all my Outlook contacts into Google. Done. Next, I’ve linked my (9) email accounts to be able to send from Gmail. I’ve also forwarded all my accounts to one consolidated gmail account that makes the whole process that much easier. I created a ton of labels and filters to keep my inbox organized with the several projects I have going on. Very nice.

That seems easy enough, but what about calendaring? Well, I use a little program called ShootMeAnEmail for all my appointments, alerts, and to-do’s. My inbox is like my multi-list. It’s for mail, communication, appointments, and to-do lists. If something is in my default inbox, it’s priority. The best thing about my full switch to Gmail, is that I’m not tied to one computer and don’t have to mess with syncing. Now if I can only find an online service for my many webpage bookmarks…

Also, looks like Google will integrate Google Talk with voicemail into Gmail too. Add another to list, and look out for a world take over.