Yahoo overhauls free Web e-mail service

Yahoo is planning to overhaul its free Web-based e-mail service to make it work more like a desktop e-mail program, the company announced late Monday.

The service will feature e-mail caching to shorten response time, message preview and drag-and-drop filing, the company said. A limited number of customers will be able to participate in the beta test of the new service in coming weeks, with general availability to follow in coming months, said Ethan Diamond, product director for Yahoo e-mail.

Yahoo e-mail users will be able to decide on using the new version, sticking with the older version, or using both. The new service currently works with only Internet Explorer and Firefox, but support for other browsers is expected to follow.