Yahoo is giving its e-mail users more ways to reach friends and online contacts from today by allowing them to to type text messages on a keyboard and send them directly to a cell phone. Initially, the text-messaging feature will be available to Yahoo Mail members in the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines.
The new e-mail-to-phone connection is one of the features the Internet media giant plans to add as it makes available to the more than 250 million Yahoo Mail users a new version of the world's most popular e-mail program in coming weeks. The new version of Yahoo Mail gives users three options for communicating with contacts - e-mail, online instant-messaging or text-messaging to mobile phone users. Users can switch between the three, depending on which is most convenient.
To text a friend, users simply enter a mobile phone number, type a text message in Yahoo Mail and hit send.
To text a friend, users simply enter a mobile phone number, type a text message in Yahoo Mail and hit send.
Yahoo plans to make its upgraded e-mail program the standard option for all new users of the free service. It will upgrade users worldwide over a six-week period. Existing users will be prompted to upgrade, although users of slower dial-up connections or those comfortable with Yahoo's "classic" e-mail can continue to use the older version.
Yahoo will remove the beta tag from the new Yahoo Mail version from today. 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. The new Yahoo Mail lets users drag and drop messages into folders, open multiple message windows, preview message content in a pane, and perform actions via keyboard shortcuts.
Yahoo will remove the beta tag from the new Yahoo Mail version from today. 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. The new Yahoo Mail lets users drag and drop messages into folders, open multiple message windows, preview message content in a pane, and perform actions via keyboard shortcuts.
