“We are excited to announce that the latest version of Yahoo Mail will roll out of beta testing and be available for all 284-million users worldwide in the coming weeks,” blogged David McDowell, senior director of product management at Yahoo. McDowell said the latest version of Yahoo Mail is “faster, safer, easier to use, and offers a seamless experience across PC, mobile and tablet devices.”

The company is promising unlimited storage, whereas Google’s Gmail service offers 7.5GB of free storage space, and Microsoft’s Hotmail service includes 5GB of storage.

Yahoo Mail users can look forward to improved “social infusion,” McDowell said, with the ability to instantly respond to messages from Facebook, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Mail and other webmail providers with a new reply bar.

Users will also be able to view photo slideshows and inline videos from within their inbox, as well as view and share notifications and updates from Twitter, Facebook and Zynga from within a new Updates tab.

Yahoo Mail’s latest version will also make sending messages easier, with a “most frequent contacts list” that surfaces first, and users can also chat with Facebook friends alongside Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger contacts and view all past IM and text conversations within Yahoo Mail.

According to the McDowell, Yahoo Mail users can customize themes and will also have more stationery options.  

“New, easy-to-use applications” help users be more productive and organized right from their inbox, promises the Yahoo executive. Users can track online orders with the All My Purchases app, stop receiving unwanted newsletters using the Unsubscriber app, and send mega files using Attach Large Files by YouSendIt.

Yahoo officials also said the new version of Yahoo Mail will include improved mail search experience, allowing users to more 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 company also promises what all of us want – speed, leveraging Yahoo’s cloud technology.

The new Yahoo Mail will provide performance that is two-times faster than the previous versions of Yahoo Mail, even in regions where only basic Internet speeds are offered, McDowell said.

In addition, advanced SpamGuard technology and a new anti-phishing platform have reduced spam reports by 60 percent and help protect users from email hackers and unwanted instant message conversations. Yahoo Mail blocks over 550 billion spam messages per month, company officials said.

Yahoo Mail is available in 43 markets and 26 languages around the world.

To upgrade an existing Yahoo Mail account or create a new Yahoo Mail account, go to overview.mail.yahoo.com and click on the “Upgrade Now” button.

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