Sun
NEW YORK — Yahoo Inc., the most popular provider of Web-based e-mail in the U.S., added a feature that lets users send free messages directly to mobile phones. The new service will debut today, the California-based company said in a statement. Customers will be able to send messages to mobile phones in the U.S., Canada, India and the Philippines. Yahoo Mail and its biggest competitors, Google Inc.’s Gmail and Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail, are adding features to attract and keep users. Yahoo is the first of the three to offer free text messages, after adding more storage and instant messaging in February to match some features provided by its rivals. While revenue generated from e-mail is “not significant,” the service is important because it attracts people to Yahoo’s sites. Yahoo’s new program also lets customers send instant messages to users of Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo said it has made the e-mail service faster and added new search functions.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007