Recently, Yahoo launched a beta version of its new calendar, which will be web 2.0 style, bringing Yahoo’s datebook in line with other similar services, like the ones provided by Google. The new calendar will be available to Yahoo Mail users from the U.S, Taiwan, Brazil and India.

This update comes after ten years after Yahoo released its first Internet calendar and two years since the release of Google’s similar product. The online calendar resembles in many aspects the reality-based paper one, in the sense that they act as reminders for certain dates and can keep one in touch with different holidays or events. The biggest difference between web and paper is that the web-based one is so much smarter and easier to use.

The beta version of the new Yahoo calendar reveals some pretty interesting features and the entire thing looks surprisingly good, for a calendar I mean. The features it provides are not so different from what you can find by using Google’s calendar, but the fact that Yahoo finally propelled its datebook into the web 2.0 world is a very good thing. The new product will permit users to drag and drop items into the calendar, subscribe to other users’ calendars, zoom in and watch pictures from Flickr in the background. Yahoo announced that in the future it will be possible for users to use their own Flickr photo stream as background to their calendar.

All in all this is certainly a good thing for Yahoo, which is currently the leader on the market of online calendars with 8.1 million subscribers. This update will allow them to remain in the top, followed by Google with 5 million subscribers worldwide.