Yahoo's getting ready to launch a new version of Yahoo Mail that closely integrates social networking features. The new release is intended to streamline the sharing, organizing and storing of information, including media content. At the same time, the company says the new Yahoo Mail will offer improved performance. Among other things, users will be able to directly respond to posts on Facebook, Yahoo and other services. They'll have more flexibility in how they chat -- including outside of Yahoo Messenger. In addition to Yahoo Mail's 284 million worldwide users, the service will be available to partners such as Nokia, Verizon, and other device manufacturers and broadband service providers. Impatient users who don't want to wait their turn in the rollout can go to overview.mail.yahoo.com and click the "Upgrade Now" button. Some of its approach seems to resemble Google's Gmail, though it puts more media -- ie, photos and the like -- right upfront. Source: Yahoo