August 25, 2009

Yahoo! may have thrown in the towel on the business of searching for information online. But the company is doubling down on a technology where it already has the lead over search king Google: in free e-mail service offered over the Web.

During an event at its Sunnyvale (Calif.) headquarters on Aug. 24, Yahoo (YHOO) unveiled a new design for its Yahoo Mail service. The updated version of the e-mail service lets users merge their in-boxes with other Internet services so they can send invitations using Evite or organize photos with Xoopit without having to leave Yahoo's familiar e-mail environs.

Social networking features such as Twitter-like status updates have also gained new prominence on the upgraded site, now available to U.S. users and scheduled for a worldwide rollout in coming weeks. The idea is to keep users coming back for more Yahoo services due to the frequency with which they check their e-mail.

For more than a decade, Web-based mail services have served as the glue that keeps millions of users returning to Yahoo. The latest round of improvements is a sign that the company plans to defend its lead among Web mail services in the U.S. by making the site more relevant to consumers, who have many options for keeping in touch. While e-mail rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) appear focused on funneling e-mailers to their more profitable search engines, Yahoo executives say that e-mail can be a profitable standalone business.

Source:-http://www.businessweek.com