Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announces major overhaul of Yahoo’s popular email service

“Yahoo Inc rolled out new versions of its popular Web email on Tuesday, the first major product makeover since Chief Executive Marissa Mayer took the helm of the struggling Internet company five months ago,” Alexei Oreskovic reports for Reuters.

“Yahoo released new versions of its Yahoo Mail product for smartphones and tablets – in keeping with Mayer’s focus on mobile devices – and a revamped version of its Web-based mail product for PC users that cuts out ancillary features and that the company said delivers faster performance,” Oreskovic reports. “‘You’ve told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email. You want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with your day,’ Mayer said in a post on Yahoo’s official blog on Tuesday.”

Oreskovic reports, “Yahoo is the No. 1 Web email product in the United States and No. 3 worldwide, behind Google Inc’s Gmail and Microsoft Corp’s Hotmail, according to comScore… Mayer, 37, is moving to revitalize Yahoo’s various Web products and reverse years of declining revenue. A former Google executive, Mayer is widely admired in Silicon Valley for her Web product savvy, though some analysts and investors have expressed caution, noting that Mayer has never before led an entire company as CEO.”

“She has said her top priority is to create a coherent mobile strategy for Yahoo and that she intends for at least half of the company’s technical workforce to be working on mobile products,” Oreskovic reports. “As part of Tuesday’s announcement, Yahoo unveiled an update to its mobile email app for smartphones based on the Android operating system, as well as Yahoo’s first stand-alone app for Apple’s iPhone [Yahoo! Mail (free) via Apple’s iTunes App Store]. Yahoo also released a version designed for tablets and PCs based on Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]