SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Yahoo spruced up its free Web-based email service this week as chief Marissa Mayer continued her quest to win users from rival Google for online tasks people tend to daily.
Upgrades to Yahoo Mail rolled out Tuesday to mark its 16th birthday included letting people pretty up screens with images from Flickr, a photo-sharing service owned by the California-based Internet pioneer.
"Today is Yahoo Mail's sweet 16, and to celebrate we're making our Mail experience elegant and intuitive on desktop, iOS, and Android," senior vice president of communication products Jeffrey Bonforte said, referencing versions tailored for mobile devices powered by Apple or Google-backed Android operating systems.
Improvements include adding to free email accounts features such as disposable addresses and automated message forwarding that were previously available online in a premium version of the service, according to Yahoo.
Yahoo also ramped the amount of digital storage space per account up to a terabyte.
The new Yahoo Mail was available in English in nine countries including Britain, India, New Zealand, the Phillipines, and the United States with "more countries and languages coming soon," Bonforte said.
Applications tailored for Apple, Android, and Windows mobile devices were available globally, according to Yahoo.
