Huh, this may be new.

Today on my Gmail, I noticed a new "Gmail Labs" feature.

One of them was this:

Get mail from other accounts Now Gmail can check for the mail you receive at your other email accounts. You can retrieve your mail (new and old) from up to five other email accounts and have them all in Gmail. Then you can even create a customized 'From:' address, which lets you send messages from Gmail, but have them look like they were sent from another one of your email accounts. Please note that you can only retrieve mail from accounts that have POP3 access enabled.

Maybe this is the ticket?

Google Apps:

To build up on what Alan was mentioning about Google Apps:

Gmail on Google Apps: http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/gmail.html

Think of it as Gmail power and ease of use... but with your own domain name.

Reading all the features of it make my head spin. There seems to be a free edition and a Premiere edition ($50/yr) with various options.

I just did a few tests.

Let's say Outlook-using Aunt Betty that I haven't seen in two years emails me- to my OLD Yahoo account that I haven't used in ages. Lucky for me, I have it set to forward to my new "home", Gmail.

It shows up in Gmail. Look, a new message from Aunt Betty! I must tell her about my new company I call "World Of Chum", my new fish bait and tackle outfit! I reply to Aunt Betty as:

Scenario 1) Reply as "gmail": Aunt Betty sees it's a message from "username@gmail.com". She might scratch her head and wonder for a moment who it's from, but eventually she accepts it as my new email.

Scenario 2) Reply as "Andy@worldofchum.com" via gmail interface: Aunt Betty's Outlook says she's got a message.

From: username@gmail.com; on behalf of; yourname [Andy@worldofchum.com]

So even though your OLD mail has been re-routed to your new Gmail home, there is NO "on behalf of" silliness as long as you reply "as Gmail".

Because of this, I eventually just send things "as Gmail".

Footnote: This "on behalf of" issue seems to only affect recipients who have programs like Outlook, but probably not web-based email. I just sent myself a message via Gmail (as a different account) and the "from" line looked just FINE. Not an issue there.

Hope that helps. Definitely give it a try and see for yourself!

A note about Alan's tip regarding forwarding all your other mail to Gmail, and replying FROM Gmail...

This from the link from Gmail's Help Center:

"Note: when you're sending with a different 'From:' address, your Gmail address will still be included in your email header's sender field, to help prevent your mail from being marked as spam. Most email clients don't display the sender field, though some versions of Microsoft Outlook may display "From yourusername@gmail.com on behalf of customaddress@mydomain.com."

In other words, if you sent an email to someone using Outlook, they might say, "Oh boy! A message from Julie. No wait, what's this?"

"From Julie@gmail.com on behalf of Julie@the-gadgeteer.com"

It was for this slightly annoying reason I just eventually migrated everything to Gmail and over time stopped using my other random emails. It didn't take me long.

Julie, if you've already got a Gmail account, why not experiment? Send yourself some emails to the usual email reception methods (Outlook, Mac Mail, Yahoo/Gmail/Hotmail webmail) and see if the results are objectionable.

[Edited at June 04, 2008 14:58:10 PM.]

[Edited at June 04, 2008 14:58:58 PM.]

Slight echo? I'm assuming she hears a slight echo in the earpiece of her own outgoing voice?

Sometimes, this is caused by the mic picking up sounds from the headset's speaker. If that's the case, turning the incoming volume down on the headset might help.