Yahoo begins rolling out social, extensible e-mail inbox

Human interaction is increasingly diversifying. We post photos to Flickr, family members leave comments, and friends reply to our latest Tweets. Yahoo recognizes this shift and has begun rolling out a new “smarter inbox” that melds social tools and even opens up to third-party applications, all in an effort to help Yahoo Mail users get more done with the people they know.

Slowly rolling out in limited beta for a select group of users, Yahoo Mail’s most significant change is a completely redesigned Welcome page that focuses less on mainstream news and ads, and more on social activity and a new concept called “My Connections.” Near the top of the Welcome page is a new My Connections area that features mail from the contacts you most frequently exchange mail with, and other contacts you specifically mark as preferred. Clicked messages open in the tabs that Yahoo’s (still-in-beta) Mail UI has featured for some time, making it easier to quickly sift through all that correspondence.

Read more: arstechnica.com