Yahoo! has made a couple new major updates to its Yahoo! Mail application that enables people to connect in a few more ways.
The new version of Yahoo! Mail now includes some intuitive communication features that make it a little easier for contacts to stay in touch. The first is the ability to send instant messages from Yahoo! Mail to mobile phone numbers. Mail users can now choose to send IM’s to mobile numbers in the US, Canada, India and the Philippines without leaving Yahoo!’s web mail interface. Users simply enter a mobile phone number, type a message and send it.
The second Mail integration is the ability to send instant messaging straight from Yahoo! Mail to Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users. This opens up chatting to millions of other IM users, straight from the Yahoo! Mail interface possible. These new features make it easier to connect with friends by converting emails to instant messages to text messages.
Yahoo! Mail IM and mobile feature enhancements will begin rolling out to users worldwide today. And if you are into adding a few new colors to the interface to spice things up, there are six customizable color themes available.
Taking a page from Google’s Searchmash experiment, the Yahoo Alpha search engine provides neatly organized results from the web, Flickr, Yahoo Answers and other sources.
Specifically, Alpha generates a dynamic search-results page with modules that can expand or collapse. A search for soul goddess Amy Winehouse, for instance, produced the usual web-search results in the central module, with modules for Flickr, Yahoo Answers, YouTube, News, and Wikipedia alongside it. (Yahoo even relegates sponsored results to its own module–nice). Within any given module, clicking Next reveals the next batch of results without actually jumping to another page.
It would be great if you could rearrange the modules in order of desired priority, or specify which modules to include, though I have to imagine those features are on the drawing board. You see, Alpha is–wait for it–currently in beta. And it has the slow, buggy performance to prove it. But see if you don’t come away thinking this is the way search engines oughta be.
Built from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you’ve always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system.
Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more
Use the integrated Yahoo! Messenger Sidebar gadget to keep up with the friends that matter most
Also add Windows Live™ Messenger friends to your contact list to see when they’re online and IM them
Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window
Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds
Instantly change the look and feel of your Yahoo! Messenger interface
Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)
Trying to decide between Google and Yahoo! as your search engine? Use both simultaneously with GayooYoogle.
This independent website will search both of the major search engines in one swoop. Type in your search term, click Search, and the search results from both search engines are presented in adjacent columns.
You can search for images, videos, news and prices as well as conventional webpages.
Taking a page from Google’s Searchmash experiment, the Yahoo Alpha search engine provides neatly organized results from the web, Flickr, Yahoo Answers and other sources.
