If you own a Blackberry, Google has introduced one more reason to switch to Gmail by way of their Google Sync tool. In addition to Google Sync’s ability to keep your mobile devices in sync with Google Calendar, a new feature now available is the ability to synchronize contacts between the BlackBerry and Google contacts. This improvement offers automatic, two-way synchronization between your BlackBerry’s built-in address book and your Google Apps contacts. From Google Maps to Google Contacts, it truly is helpful to have a central repository of contact information and this is making it harder for someone who has switched to Gmail to consider moving back to another service provider.

So, even though Microsoft has shared contacts with Hotmail, Xbox and the  Zune, there’s still places like the Blackberry or Windows Live Maps where access to Windows Live contact information would be very helpful, and the lack of such a service from Microsoft makes it harder to continue justify using their services.