Reuters inform: “Yahoo Inc said on Sunday it was giving its e-mail users more ways to reach friends and online contacts by allowing them to trade messages with mobile phone users.”

“The new e-mail-to-phone connection is one of the features the Internet media giant plans to add as it makes available to the more than 250 million Yahoo Mail users a new version of the world’s most popular e-mail program in coming weeks.”

“The new version of Yahoo Mail gives users three options for communicating with contacts — e-mail, online instant-messaging or text-messaging to mobile phone users. Users can switch between the three, depending on which is most convenient.”

“Initially, the text-messaging feature will be available to Yahoo Mail members in the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines. To text a friend, users simply enter a mobile phone number, type a text message in Yahoo Mail and hit send.”

“The key difference with the older e-mail program is how the new service lets users “drag and drop” e-mail into folders, speeding the time it takes to sort through incoming messages.”