Yahoo! has unleashed a new version of Yahoo! Mail that allows users to send instant messages to the world’s largest combined instant messaging (IM) community including users of Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
The new version of Yahoo! Mail also allows users send free text messages to mobile phones in the US, Canada, India and the Philippines.
This version of Yahoo! Mail will have enhanced speed and performance over Yahoo! Mail Classic, its traditional web mail service, which will still be available.
“We have always been focused on making it easy for people to connect to those who matter most to them, and during the beta testing period of the new Yahoo! Mail we were able to incorporate a number of enhancements based on valuable feedback from our users,” said John Kremer, vice-president, Yahoo! Mail.
“Now, with the all-new Yahoo! Mail, we’re creating a more social email experience. In addition, we wanted to make sure that people have the best possible web mail experience regardless of their geographic location, preferences or system so we’re continuing to offer our trusted Yahoo! Mail Classic interface.”
Using Yahoo! Mail, people can easily convert their email messages into IM chats or switch to a text message dialogue with the click of a button, when friends come online or go mobile, and vice-versa.
Other new features include: faster speed; refined email search options, including the ability to narrow results by sender, folder, date, attachment type and message status; six customisable colour themes to personalise the look of their Yahoo! Mail; and, in the US only, users will be able to right click on underlined dates, names and keywords within messages and take additional action such as adding events directly to their Yahoo! Calendars, adding friends to their contacts, immediately viewing a Yahoo! Map of an address or performing a web search on a keyword.
It also features other enhanced capabilities such as tabbed navigation, a reading pane, an integrated calendar and an RSS reader.
By Niall Byrne
