If, like your writer, you have long desired to switch your webmail client to Gmail but have been intimidated at the thought of losing easy access to your historical archive of thousands of messages, help is at hand.

Google has announced the rollout of a new migration tool that works automatically to move messages and contacts out of AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo! and other webmail services, into Gmail. It’s not available on all accounts just yet and businesses using Google Apps may not get access to the tool at all, but it promises to make the switch a no-brainer for many.