Yahoo’s 273-million e-mail subscribers are about to experience faster, easier and safer service, according to the Internet giant. The company unveiled Yahoo Mail Beta, a new-and-improved, free e-mail service that includes some innovative features including a fresh interface.

The launch is considered to be the biggest overhaul of Yahoo’s e-mail service in five years. Although still in a testing phase, all e-mail accounts will automatically be converted to the new format sometime next year.

"Online communication tools are an important part of people's lives--whether they're connecting with their friends and family, sharing pictures and videos, or keeping up on news across social networks," said Blake Irving, chief product officer for Yahoo. "We've built a powerful global framework for e-mail that lets us quickly innovate and enhance this trusted service that people rely on every day. Yahoo Mail Beta completes our trio of mail experiences, seamlessly spanning the PC, Droid, iPhone and iPad. For the millions of people who access e-mail from a PC and a phone or tablet, there's no better cross-device experience."

One of the most impressive perks of the redesign is performance – Yahoo promises that its e-mail service will run twice as fast as in the past. The company is also offering users the chance to connect their e-mail accounts with their Twitter profiles, enabling subscribers to post ‘tweets’ directly from their Yahoo e-mail account.

Addition perks include:

Seamless chatting and texting

Viewing photos and videos right from the inboxL Automatic slideshow features mean people can easily see photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube from right within their e-mail messages.

Enhanced e-mail search capabilities that let users quickly find the right e-mails. New search refinement features allow users to easily navigate, sort, and narrow search results by sender, attachment file, date, or folder location.

Greater protection against spam: Yahoo Mail Beta uses Yahoo!'s global cloud computing infrastructure to further Yahoo's anti-spam efforts and provide an even safer mail experience.

The ability to play videos and peruse pictures sent to you without having to follow links to a new page.

Yahoo is banking on the facelift to attract new users. According to comScore, the number of Yahoo e-mail users was 10 percent lower in September than a year ago.