Sunnyvale, CA – February 12, 2007 – Beginning today, users of the world's No. 1 Web mail service,* Yahoo! Mail, will be able to chat in real-time using a new instant messaging (IM) feature which is seamlessly integrated into the Yahoo! Mail beta (http://new.mail.yahoo.com). The new feature, built on the Yahoo! Messenger platform, began rolling out today to Yahoo! Mail beta users worldwide, and will be available to all users in the coming months.
"Yahoo! is focused on making it easier for people to connect to those who matter most to them," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail. "By bringing Yahoo!'s leading instant messaging capabilities to e-mail users, we're transforming Yahoo! Mail into a tool that's about communicating; regardless of the form that communication takes."
This deep integration across Yahoo!'s e-mail and instant messaging services enables e-mail users to easily connect to contacts in Yahoo! Messenger's thriving IM community, without leaving the Web mail experience. People can choose to let others know if they are online and available to exchange messages in real time, and users will be able to see the online status of everyone in their contact list as well. Each instant messaging dialogue will take place in a new conversation tab within Yahoo! Mail beta, allowing people to chat with multiple friends simultaneously, without leaving the e-mail experience. Users can also convert e-mails seamlessly into IMs when friends come online (or vice-versa).
The Yahoo! Mail beta is a true Web 2.0 experience, including a sleek, easy-to-use interface with the speed and responsiveness of a desktop application. In addition to instant messaging, the Yahoo! Mail beta also features enhanced functionality such as drag and drop e-mail organization, message preview, an integrated calendar and an RSS reader. Like the classic Yahoo! Mail experience, the new version is a free, browser-based service, accessible from virtually any computer connected to the Internet, without the need for a software download.
For more information, a screencast demonstrating the new instant messaging capabilities in the Yahoo! Mail beta is available at http://ymailupdates.com/.
