Re: Hotmail to Gmail.
One way is to slowly transition from hotmail to gmail while keeping your contacts. YOu can do that using various methods:
Put REPLY TO address in your hotmail and any emails you REPLY to would come to your gmail
Gather up your contacts in hotmail and send an email from hotmail and / or gmail and let them know about the new account and change in address.
Put up an automated reply (not the best method) to your hotmail letting people know that you have changed your email account and you will NOT be replying back to them. And make a note that if it is something important, people need to contact you by other means and get the proper address.
if you have a contact list on hotmail, you should be able to import that into outlook / outlook express via hotmail and/or windows live email client and then use that to send the emails out or import that into gmail.
I hope this helps.