Just read the news that Yahoo is going to integrate instant messaging with their email — CNET has this screenshot on their website.

I’ve been expecting Yahoo to introduce this feature, given the fact that their new email interface (currently in beta) uses tabs to display multiple messages in the same window. Google’s Gmail also has integrated chat, but from what I see in the above screenshot, Yahoo’s looks way better.

I wonder if Yahoo would let users make voice calls from this integrated email/chat interface. That would be really cool, but probably difficult to implement.

I almost stopped using my Yahoo email a few months ago in favor of the slick Gmail — until Yahoo allowed me to use their new beta, which was a vast improvement over the previous one. There is still few things I really like about Gmail, but it’s nice to see Yahoo making an attempt to catch up with, or even better, Google in some aspects. Competition is a beautiful thing!!