Yahoo Inc. will close an almost two-year public test for its new version of Yahoo Mail on Monday with several new enhancements, as the Sunnyvale, California, Internet giant boosts this Webmail service that is key to both its usage and advertising growth.
Yahoo will remove the beta tag from the new Yahoo Mail version on Monday and will roll it out to all of the service's 254 million active users worldwide in the coming six weeks.
A few Surprises
Because the new Yahoo Mail has been available to all of the service's users for almost a year in beta form, its enhancements aren't a secret, but Yahoo is announcing some new improvements.
For example, all users will see an improvement in performance and speed with this "general availability" version of the new Yahoo Mail, as well as an expansion of the search refinement features.
In addition, the capability to initiate an instant messaging session with Yahoo Messenger users from within Yahoo Mail has been extended to include Microsoft Windows Live Messenger users and will be available worldwide as well.
Meanwhile, users in the U.S., India, Canada, and the Philippines will get the capability to send text messages to mobile phones from within an e-mail message window, a feature Yahoo expects to extend elsewhere as it secures agreements with local mobile operators.
Moreover, in the U.S., the new Yahoo Mail will also gain a feature called Shortcuts that has been available in the "classic" version of the service. This feature lets the system automatically recognize things such as dates and addresses, giving people the option of adding the information to their Yahoo Calendar or Contacts list, launching Web searches and displaying a map inside the Yahoo Mail interface.
Although the new Yahoo Mail will now become the service's primary version, users will be able to continue using the "classic" version. "We'll continue to offer both products for the foreseeable future and we'll let our users decide what's the right Yahoo Mail experience for them," said John Kremer, Yahoo Mail's vice president.
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