Yahoo Email To Get Long-Promised Facelift

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo's popular email service is getting a long-promised facelift. It's part of the Internet company's attempt to appeal to people who are increasingly using Facebook, Twitter, Google and other online alternatives to communicate.

The changes announced Tuesday build upon a redesigned email format that Yahoo Inc. began testing last October. The estimated 277 million users of Yahoo's free email will be switched to the new version during the next few weeks.

The overhaul will enable updates to Facebook and Twitter accounts to be posted from within Yahoo's email boxes. The revamped service is supposed to be two times faster and capable of sending attachments of up to 100 megabytes. Other tools include better junk-mail controls and the ability to chat with friends and family logged into Facebook.