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Yahoo has some 80 million users in the United States, and the next time they login to check their email they will be offered the opportunity to switch to the Outlook-like Yahoo Mail Beta version.

For Yahoo users who haven't done the "set UK/Ireland as default, join Yahoo Mail Beta, switch Yahoo default back to U.S." trick to get access to Yahoo's new look and feel for mail, the chance to make the change has arrived.

Mercury News reported the beta would be opened globally today by Yahoo.

The new inbox includes options for users to access their contacts and calendar, and to view RSS feeds, all from the mail client.

Yahoo Mail serves as a gateway to more profitable services, the report said. A user who has their mail client open regularly may give services like Calendar and Messenger with Voice a try.

Yahoo has been heavily promoting their Answers service from within Mail, too.

Users of Microsoft Outlook will see a resemblance to that mail client when using Yahoo Mail.

The new client still keeps messages in folders. When showing the contents of a folder, the list of messages will appear in one pane of the window, while the contents of a highlighted message will be displayed below the message list.

Those who have been using the new Yahoo home page (complete with Yahoo Yodel when clicking the ! in the Yahoo! logo) have been able to see their top five inbox messages in a Mail preview window.

That feature preceded the full release of the new Mail service.

Yahoo acquired Oddpost in 2004 specifically to bring their Outlook-like mail service to Yahoo Mail.

The new beta has been in testing for quite some time, and some users may find the Yahoo Mail Beta to be slower than the existing client, particularly on older machines. Those who prefer the current mail scheme can switch back to it if they choose.

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