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The new version of Yahoo Mail has officially dropped the beta status and offers a number of new features like the ability to send text messages to a cell phone making it the first major web-based e-mail service offer such functionality.
Under the "Compose" option at the top of the Yahoo Mail sidebar there will be a new option to sent your message via SMS to number in India, Canada, the Philippines and the United States. To use it you enter a contact's name, type in the mobile phone number, and the send the message. SMS threads appear in talk bubbles next to your chat avatar in the Yahoo Mail window.
As with large scale upgrades of this sort, Yahoo will be rolling things out gradually over the next six weeks so, like me, you may not see the new features on your account for a little while.
In addition to the SMS, the out-of-beta version of Yahoo Mail features some much need keyboard shortcuts (n for new message, c for chat, etc). Other changes include support for IM chats with people using Windows Live Messenger as well as better search options and speed improvements.
So how does the the new Yahoo Mail stack up against GMail? It depends what you're looking for, at this point, aside from interface design, the main differences are that Yahoo offers the SMS option and GMail offers free POP access and e-mail forwarding (Yahoo offers POP and forwarding, but you'll have to pony up $20 for the privilege).
If you're a heavy SMS user Yahoo Mail is the way to go, if you're looking to centralize all your e-mail addresses in one spot I'd recommend GMail.
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