Inbox Insider: Yahoo updates make consumer e-mail more social

After Yahoo partnered with Microsoft last month, Carol Bartz said that the goal is to make Yahoo the center of a consumer's life online and to be more of a destination. So it follows that the online giant would upgrade Yahoo Mail to be more social.

The new Yahoo inbox lets users control how they receive content through tools such as a new application box where users can personalize their calendar, notepad and third-party apps. And it comes with new third party apps including an Evite app where Yahoo users can create and send Evites within YahooMail, coming next month. There will also be Flickr, PayPal, Picnik, Xoopit and ZumoDrive right in YahooMail.

The new changes also include the addition of video chat in Yahoo Messenger, similar to Google chat. There is also now a status update tab similar to Facebook and a Twitter feed.

With consumers having a more integrated inbox, e-mail marketing can get more creative. Think the ability to add images to Flickr to help promote a product, the ability to accept payments through PayPal, Twitter feeds that reinforce an e-mail message or a live chat customer service function right in Yahoo Mail or Google Mail for that matter.

As part of the upgrades, YahooMail has been optimized for the mobile phone to make it easier for users to check and search e-mail on the phone. Get creative, the mobile e-mail campaign is now easier to find for a Yahoo user who may be in-store.