Yahoo Mail Gets Upgrade in Social, Search, Speed, Security, Interface

Yahoo Mail has 284 million users, and it’s now rolling out the new verison of Yahoo Mail to all of them (though you can upgrade yourself if you don’t want to wait).

“Yahoo!’s vision for online communications brings together all the tools that people use to connect — email, chat, SMS, and social updates — and makes it easier for them to share content and engage in conversations with the people that matter most to them,” said Yahoo Chief Product Officer Blake Irving. “We’re delivering on this strategy with the latest version of Yahoo! Mail, providing our hundreds of millions of users worldwide with a fun, engaging and  constantly connected experience across desktop, mobile and tablet devices that keeps the conversation going – anytime, anywhere.”

The new Yahoo Mail will let users respond to messages from Facebook, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Mail and other webmail providers from one reply bar. Users can view photo slideshows and inline videos in the inbox, and can view and share notifications and updates from Twitter, Facebook, and Zynga from a new “Updates” tab.

Yahoo will surface your most frequent contacts and lists first, when you go to compose an IM, SMS or email. Users can chat with Facebook Friends along with Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger contacts, and view all past IM and text conversations from within Yahoo Mail.

There are 50 different themes and stationery options and new apps for productivity and organization that can be used in the inbox. “Now you can track your online orders with the All My Purchases app, stop receiving unwanted newsletters using the Unsubsriber app, and send mega files using Attach Large Files by YouSendIt,” says Yahoo Mail Sr. Director of Product Management David McDowell.

“Our mail search experience leverages Yahoo!’s wealth of search science and technology to help you quickly find the emails you are looking for,” he adds. “Easily sort and narrow search results by sender, attachment file, date, or folder location using the refinement column tools on the left-hand side.”

The new Yahoo Mail also utilize’s Yahoo’s cloud to provide faster performance. Yahoo says it’s two times faster than previous incarnations of Yahoo Mail (even in regions where only basic Internet speeds are offered).

It also uses an “advanced SpamGuard” technology and anti-phishing platform, which the company says reduces spam reports by 60%. Yahoo says it blocks over 550 billion spam messages per month.

Yahoo is celebrating the release by giving away a year of free coffee, “because coffee and Yahoo Mail go together so well every morning.” Good timing on that, as coffee prices are rising.

Yahoo Mail users can go to overview.mail.yahoo.com to upgrade to the new version.