RSS, the star attraction in new Yahoo! Mail

RSS, the star attraction in new Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo Inc has integrated Really Simple Syndication feeds into its e-mail client, Yahoo Mail. This feature is available in beta, making Yahoo the first major company to integrate RSS into mail.

This new service will allow users to receive alerts through SMS, e-mail or even instant messaging.

RSS is basically a technology that alerts users whenever new content is loaded on their favorite websites. Lately, blogs have also come under the purview of RSS and Yahoo's new service will enable users to receive alerts form their favorite blogs as well.

Announcing the introduction of the new service, Ethan Diamond, the director of product development at Yahoo said, "We're expanding upon Yahoo's significant leadership in RSS by integrating it right into the world's most popular Web mail service. By adding feeds to Yahoo! Mail, we will introduce RSS technology to a more expansive consumer base than ever before."

Yahoo Mail users can access the new services by clicking on the "All Feeds" icon. This will provide a snapshot of all posts irrespective of whether they are on the My Yahoo page or not. This means that mail users have the option of forwarding or printing the news that appeals most to them.

"There are a million different feeds that people have subscribed to using Yahoo products," said Scott Gatz, a director of personalization products at Yahoo. The RSS feed alerts can be accessed at http://alerts.yahoo.com and alerts will be sent by SMS or e-mail depending on the users' choice.

Yahoo said that this new option allows users to keep track of what is essential to them regardless of the time and place that they are in. For example, users can keep track of their favorite actor's romantic entanglements or even team news in football or even check out any new property that hit the markets.

So where does this leave Yahoo vis-à-vis Google? Analysts say that Yahoo is striving to diversify its approach as well as reach and is fiercely competing with Google. As of now, neither Google nor Microsoft commented on Yahoo's new RSS mantra.