Yahoo is finally releasing its web Mail program out of beta stage, at the same time integrating some new features, the most notable of which being the email to mobile phone messaging facility.
With the new feature, Yahoo mail users who enter valid contact numbers in their contacts’ profiles can opt to send text messages or instant messages that will be sent directly into their contacts’ mobile phones as an ordinary sms or text messages. The Yahoo mail interface is also improved to facilitate shifting from one type of messaging to another. These messages can be received by the users even if they are not connected to Yahoo mail via their mobile phones. Previously, Yahoo users can only send instant messages to their contacts whenever they are online via their mobile phones.
Of course, fully utilizing this feature requires faster connection since the new Yahoo mail portal is heavy and peppered with a lot of widgets and stuff. Users who still refuse to use the new Yahoo mail portal and are sticking it out with the old Yahoo mail portal won’t be able to use this facility. But if this new feature is not enough reason for you to shift to the new Yahoo mail portal, then might as well stick to the simple and yet faster Yahoo mail interface.
There is no doubt that this is a great feature for a web mail. It gives users more options to connect to their contacts anytime and anywhere. But in order to be successful, Yahoo must at least try to improve on the loading time of the new Yahoo mail portal that would benefit users with slow internet connection. The new “widgetized” look of the Yahoo mail portal is a turn off among hard core web mail users who wants simple and straightforward web mail client. There’s nothing wrong with being lavishly punky, but most of the time simplicity and functionality are still what matters.
