WebProNews

The portal and search engine provider has enabled the most dramatic update to the e-mail service since 1997.

A few people will be able to participate in a beta test of Yahoo's e-mail service update, with more availability coming in the next several weeks, according to CNET News. The updates will have Yahoo's e-mail service function more like a desktop e-mail product.

The changes come in the wake of Yahoo's 2004 acquisition of a web-based e-mail company called Oddpost. Their engineers and programmers have been working on the new update to Yahoo Mail since that time.

Users will be able to scroll through all of their inbox messages, use drag and drop to shift items to and from mail folders, and delete messages with one keystroke. The use of Dynamic HTML, similar to the technology used by Yahoo on its news page, makes a lot of new functionality possible.

With Dynamic HTML, background caching of information takes place in a manner that lets users quickly retrieve results to new actions they perform. This way, content refreshes on a page without the entire browser window having to be refreshed.

After beta testing is complete, both the enhanced version and the older e-mail service will continue to be supported, so users of web browsers that don't work with the new version will still have access to Yahoo e-mail.

"This new version that will go into beta this summer is a complete overhaul of the UI and is the most dramatic update to the service yet," said Yahoo spokesperson Karen Mahon.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.