Yahoo has expanded its free Web mail services by introducing new features and enhancements, including software that lets its users send text messages to mobile phones directly from their email.

These enhancements apparently give users no reasons to launch or toggle between separate applications or devices, as sending e-mails, instant messages or text messages can all be done from a single Web site.

The new Yahoo Mail also includes improvements to make the service faster. It will also allow users to connect with people using Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger service.

John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail told Reuters that by upgrading the e-mail service technology, the Sunnyvale, California-based company aims to lay the groundwork for adding more social-networking features later this year.

“Our goal is to make (Yahoo) Mail a more social experience,” Kremer said. “We really look at ourselves as sitting on top of the largest dormant social network out there.”

The updates come amid strong competition among free Web-based e-mail providers.

Gartner Research analyst Michael McGuire told AFP that “These are all important features they have to keep adding to the platform in the face of Hotmail, Gmail, or whatever.”

“But this is more than keeping up with competitors. They have added value.”

Yahoo expects that it will take more than a month for all the new features to become available worldwide in 21 different languages to all the 254 million Yahoo Mail users.

Likewise, since the text messaging feature depends largely on the cooperation of mobile phone service providers, its initial offering is limited to select countries, including the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 10:02 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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