Yahoo is attempting to make Yahoo Mail your source for getting as much done as possible, but can it bring back the users it has lost to rival Google Mail?

There is no doubt that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is trying everything she can to keep the Yahoo brand relevant in a market that is consistently being dominated by Google, and her latest attempt is to make sure you have less reasons to navigate to other sites.

The Yahoo Mail blog announced that over the coming months the service will be rolling out numerous new widgets to Yahoo Mail, My Yahoo, Yahoo Connected TV and Zimbra.  After you sign up for inclusion in the program, you will eventually be able to a lot of things that would normally require you to go to other sites to accomplish.  These include, but are not limited to:

For Yahoo Mail

• Send payments with Pay Pal
• Send large files with Zumo Drive
• Add images to Photobucket
• Edit photos with Picnik

For My Yahoo

• Check your financial account on Mint
• Publish posts and moderate comments on WordPress
• Shop for environmentally friendly gifts on Mokugift
• Check movie times and locations via Flixster

For Yahoo Connected TV

• Search YouTube for videos
• Interact with the eBay marketplace, including placing bids
• Finding information and clips for shows on the Showtime cable network

And, finally, Zimbra will receive numerous small widgets that extends its functionality.

This beta test for Yahoo Mail is currently limited to users in the United States, but will be rolled out to other countries over the next several months.  The widgets, of which there are are 22 thus far, for My Yahoo are available now by clicking on “Add Content” and then choosing “Open Widgets”.

While it is obvious that Yahoo is trying to gain back some of its market share it has lost over the past several years, I’m not positive that cluttering up their pages with more information is the way to do it.  One of the things people love about Google Mail is its simplicity.  While its true you can add more functionality to your page with Google Labs features, they tend to integrate into the design of the site, and enhance what is already there, and not feel like something that has been tacked on just to be able to say “Look!  You can do other stuff with your mail!”

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm under Yahoo!.

Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
Stumble It!