Yahoo will introduce two new e-mail domains for its users. The
new domains, Ymail and Rocketmail, will be available sometimes during Thursday.
Yahoo officials said that due to the growing number of
users, creating a name for an e-mail account on Yahoo Mail has become quite a
complicated task.
Instead of simple e-mail addresses like myname@yahoo.com ,
the users should use various combinations. In order to ease the life of its
customers, Yahoo has decided to expand the domain names of its free webmail.
The name Rocketmail was acquired by Yahoo in 1997 when the
company bought Four11, which was Hotmail’s main competitor. Unveiled later that
year, Yahoo Mail was based on Rocketmail engine.
The users of Rocketmail have kept their e-mail accounts
after the acquisition, but Yahoo has blocked the new sign-ups. Ymail is a
domain that is already well-known for the users of Yahoo Mobile services.
The company said that the new e-mail accounts will offer the
same interface and facilities as the ones from Yahoo.com. Also, Rocketmail and
Ymail will offer localization options and unlimited storage.
However, Yahoo’s effort to increase its e-mail accounts is
somehow questionable because several studies conducted in the past few years revealed
that the e-mail use is on decline, its place being taken by the instant
messaging. Based on the registered
number of users and the active accounts, Yahoo Mail is already the largest free
e-mail provider in the United
States.
Yahoo Mail unveiled a new interface that mimic the one of an
e-mail client in August last year and it included several features such as
Yahoo Calendar, SMS or the ability to send instant messages.
However, it faces a strong competition from Windows Live
Mail, the service created by Microsoft as part of its Live brand.
Yahoo explained that those who wish to change their existing
e-mail address from name @yahoo.com to name@ymail.com
will have this option.
The ID’s created on Rocketmail and Ymail domains can be used
also on other services such as Yahoo Messenger.
Last year, Yahoo acquired Zimbra, a company that provides
NEXT generation e-mail services and collaboration software. Zimbra’s offer
included an AJAX-based e-mail, which integrates calendar and contact management
features.
According to Chang Yahoo intends to use Zimbra platform in order to
strengthen and extend its position in e-mail services market. Zimbra is
offering also to its user the possibility to create mash-ups called Zimlets
that tie in valuable Web services to e-mail. Yahoo paid for Zimbra $350
million.