Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 5:28 pm IST

Yahoo! Mail Gets Smarter

16 Dec, 2008, 12:52 pm IST | tech2 News Staff |

Yahoo! has introduced enhancements to Yahoo! Mail, with a "smarter inbox" experience that will begin rolling out to users on a limited basis over the coming months.

The Yahoo! Mail smarter inbox experience hopes to address the changing communications needs of consumers by streamlining access to the most relevant and useful information.

It features a new Yahoo! Mail Welcome Page which surfaces messages, information and activity updates from the users' closest kin as well as an updated inbox and folder view that filters messages from those personal connections.

The smarter Yahoo! Mail inbox also gives users immediate access to relevant third-party applications that can leverage the user's email content, calendar and contacts with the user's permission.

Yahoo! Mail's smarter inbox will provide a filtered view of the users' messages and bring applications from across the Web right into Yahoo! Mail.

New features include:

- Connections: Users can "connect" with others using Yahoo!'s universal profile service and designate the people whose messages and activity updates are most important to them.
- Filtered View of the Inbox and Folders: Yahoo! Mail users can now view a prioritized view of the inbox and folders based on their connections.
- New Welcome Page with Messages from Connections and Updates: Users receive a preview of messages from their connections, see connection suggestions made by Yahoo!, and have the ability to send and receive connection invitations. Users can also see activity Update feeds from their connections, including activity across Yahoo! and, in the future, across the Web.
- Applications and Gallery: Users have new ways to communicate and be more productive, with new communications applications included in Yahoo! Mail's left-hand navigation panel. Developers from the Web's top brands will soon have the ability to integrate their services right into Yahoo! Mail.

The 'Updates' feature in the new Yahoo! mail will bring together various forms of communication in one place and allow users to stay up to speed on a range of their connections' activities and interests. The initial integration of 'Updates' into Yahoo! Mail will include user activity related to new connections, the universal Yahoo! profile, Yahoo! Buzz, and Yahoo! properties such as TV, Music and Travel. Third-party Web sites can also integrate their users' activity streams with Yahoo! Updates using the Yahoo! Social Platform and developer APIs or via applications deployed through the Yahoo! Application Platform into My Yahoo!.

Yahoo! has also started a limited beta test bringing third party applications into Yahoo! Mail.

Initial applications include:

- Family Journal: build a family tree inside Yahoo! Mail and easily share with relatives.
- Flickr: share Flickr photos with friends and family right from the inbox.
- Flixster: share movie show times, trailers and reviews instantly from the inbox.
- WordPress: post photos, links, and more from the inbox to a WordPress blog.
- Xoopit: see and share all the photos stored in email, including attachments and links to photo sharing sites, in one organized ‘photo view' of the inbox.
- Yahoo! Greetings with American Greetings: use the autocomplete email address feature to send an ecard seamlessly from Yahoo! Mail.

Select Yahoo! Mail users in the United States and Australia will begin to experience the social features of the smarter inbox experience, including the new Welcome Page, inbox and folder-view enhancements, and connections and Updates functionality beginning today.

A more limited group of users based in the United States will begin beta testing the open applications today. Yahoo! plans to bring together the social and open features into Yahoo! Mail in the first half of 2009.

Tags: Yahoo!