At Yahoo's "Product Runway" media event today Chief Products Officer Blake Irving detailed the changes coming to Yahoo Mail in the next few weeks. Featuring a redesigned interface and rearchitectured features, Yahoo hopes to streamline the Mail experience for their 281 million users. As the beta goes live this fall, users will be able to take part in an opt-in program to test the changes out for themselves.
The new purple interface looks to bridge the design gap of the current browser version with the recently released mobile and tablet apps. Shinier interface aside, Yahoo is focusing on more integration between Mail and its other services including Yahoo Messenger, photo sharing tools, SMS support, ties to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as making links to Yahoo's other news and entertainment services. Yahoo is also touting the service's redesign as making Mail significantly faster and more accessible, allowing messages to be sent and received at "lightning speed."