Internet, Yahoo Mail | featured news

Yahoo is spiffing up and expanding its email service in an attempt to regain some of the ground lost to a Google alternative that lured away millions of users. The changes unveiled Tuesday are meant to make Yahoo's email faster and easier to use on the Web. To cater to the growing audience checking their email on smartphones and tablet computers, Yahoo also introduced mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad and devices powered by Microsoft Corp.'s recently released Windows 8 system.

Get ready for a new invasion wave from Facebook: Mail. According to Techcrunch's sources, a full webmail client integrated with The One and Only Social Network will debut next Monday. If I were Google, Yahoo or Hotmail, I'd be very nervous.

Yahoo is redesigning its email service to help stem a user decline and counter offerings from longtime rivals Microsoft and Google as well as social-networking services such as Facebook and Twitter.

Company's answer to Facebook-style sharing will link it's e-mail users through address books.

Microsoft Corp. is trying to make Hotmail cool again. The upgrade, expected to be available in July or August, will automatically sort incoming messages into different categories devoted to users' key contacts and Internet social networks. It will also provide previews of incoming photos, videos and other material without having to open an attachment or click on a link.

Does your email address reveal something about your credit score? According to Credit Karma, an online credit checking service, it might.