With more people using Facebook, Twitter and Google's Gmail to communicate, Yahoo Inc. is giving its e-mail service a long due facelift in a bid to make its widely popular e-mail service more appealing.

Yahoo announced on Tuesday a redesigned email format that it began testing with a Beta version seven months ago. Yahoo said the 284 million users of its free email service will be switched to the new version during the next few weeks.

"This faster, safer, and easier email experience will roll out to you and all of Yahoo! Mail's 284-million users worldwide, offering fun, engaging and productive features consistent across PC, mobile and tablet devices," Yahoo! said in its official blog site.

The new Yahoo! mail allows users to quickly view and reply to messages, photos and videos from Facebook, Yahoo! Groups and webmail providers directly from within Yahoo's e-mail boxes.Other tools include chatting with Facebook friends right from within Yahoo! Mail, unsubscribing from unwanted emails, or sending huge messages (100 megabytes) right from the inbox.

According to Yahoo, people can instantly respond to messages from Facebook, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Mail and other webmail providers with a new easy reply bar. Additionally, people can view photo slideshows, inline videos and more from within their inboxes. People can also view and share notifications and updates from Twitter, Facebook and Zynga from a new Updates tab.

The redesigned mail service is also "lightning speed." According to Yahoo, leveraging on its cloud technology, Yahoo! Mail provides performance that is twice as fast as previous versions of Yahoo! Mail, even in regions where only basic Internet speeds are offered.
Aside from the that the new Yahoo! Mail contains many vibrant themes and stationery options to allow users to customize how they view messages and contacts.

The new Yahoo! Mail is also now more accessible to people with disabilities -- the new mail service can be used via a keyboard only or a mouse and leverages context-sensitive instructional text to make it easier for people who use screen readers.

Millions of Email Users

Yahoo! is hoping that the newly redesigned e-mail service will retain and woo back email users as more people are flocking to search giant Google's Gmail.

According to research firm comScore Inc., Yahoo! at present has more active users with 277 million users worldwide, compared to Gmail's 220 million. However, Gmail has been gaining ground against Yahoo! in the past year -- Yahoo lost 3 million users in the past year while Gmail had gained 43 million users.

Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail service remains the leader in the e-mail service market with 327 million users. However, Hotmail lost 27 million users in the past year.

Yahoo wants to gain more email users in order to improve ad revenues.

"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 Blake Irving, chief product officer, Yahoo!. "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."