MOST OF US LIVE IN GOOGLE. It's more than merely one of the best search sites on the planet; it's a constellation of sites, services, applications, and destinations. Google is its own universe, really, and like ours after the Big Bang, it's constantly expanding. That means becoming Google-savvy is important.

For a quick example of how you can customize your Google experience, here's a Google Desktop tweak that can help you conserve storage space, followed by a Gmail hack that can help you import your contacts. (The Google Desktop tip clearly re¬quires Google's free desktop application; get it at desktop.google.com.) To help you get the most from this brave new universe, we've collected more than 30 Google tips and tricks online at go.pcmag .com/hackinggoogle.

Import Contacts into Gmail
You have dozens or hundreds of contacts in your existing e-mail software. The last thing you want is to retype them all into Gmail. You don't have to:

Gmail can import CSV format. But first you have to export your contacts into a CSV file.

How to do this varies according to your e-mail software. In Microsoft Outlook, choose File I Import and Export, launching the Import and Export Wizard. Choose Export to a file, click Next, and choose Comma Separated Values (Windows) from the screen that appears. On the next screen, choose your Contacts folder, and click Next. Give the file a name (a .csv extension will be automati¬cally added to it), browse to the folder where you want to save it, and click Next and then Finish.

Now that you have the file ready, go to your Gmail account and click Contacts on the left side of the screen. Click Import from the upper right-hand side of the page that appears. Click the Browse button; then navigate to the folder where you've exported your contacts, select it, and click Open. Click Import Contacts.
After a minute or more, you'll get a message tell¬ing you that your contacts have been imported and listing the total number of contacts involved. Click the Close button. Now your contacts will be avail¬able in Gmail. To see them on the Contacts screen, click All Contacts.