It looks like Yahoo has finally woken up to the fact that its mail service is on a downward spiral at the moment. This is evident from the fact that this fall Yahoo Mail will be revamped. Yahoo! not only aims to bring in more users with this much needed facelift but also plans to improve browsing experience on slow connections.
The new Yahoo mail project is code-named (and quite appropriately too!) ‘Minty’, will improve the web based email service. The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Yahoo Mail will look like the iPad and Android versions of the service. Yahoo is also reportedly looking at a sleeker design and improved integration with social networking websites.
And these changes may be necessary for Yahoo to make sure that it does not lose ground to either Gmail or Hotmail. Though Yahoo leads the both of them by more than a country mile in the US, the number of total Yahoo users has been going down, as has been reported by a ComScore study. Yahoo has lost about 10 million users in the period of one year, while worldwide; it has lost 7% of its user-base.
In the same period Hotmail has gained 3% and Gmail has gained a whopping 22%, more users than last year. But these numbers are not the only source of worry for Yahoo.
It has been reported that people in US spend more time on Facebook than Yahoo and Gmail. So there is a threat from these social networking services, which allow users to communicate without the need for email.
Instead of trying to combat the tide, Yahoo has taken the wise option of riding with it. The company is having a partnership with Facebook, to give Mail users the power to update Facebook status from a Yahoo inbox.
And then Yahoo has to address the rise of smartphones powered by Google’s Android, which usually are preloaded with Gmail. Android apps for Yahoo Mail and Messenger have been launched very recently and their impact is not yet known fully.
So, it looks like a lot depends on this ‘Minty’ update!
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