By SCOTT MORRISON
SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo Inc. unveiled a series of upgrades to its email, instant messaging and Internet search pages, as the Internet portal tries to make its core Web properties more compelling to users.
Yahoo said Monday its redesigned email page will have more photo-sharing capabilities and social-networking functions, such as helping users monitor what friends and family are sharing online.
Yahoo said its new Messenger instant-messaging product has high-quality video calling capabilities that let users connect though full-screen, face-to-face chats.
The company also said it is working to develop a new search-page design to deliver results that are more relevant to users' queries.
For example, a query for "how to make sushi" will return organic search results and sponsored results, as well as a column containing links to sites that specifically provide information on how to prepare sushi dishes, says Larry Cornett, Yahoo's vice president of search products and design. This could include "how to" videos from Google Inc.'s YouTube, viewable within Yahoo's search results page.
Yahoo has been under pressure to respond to the rapidly growing popularity of social networking sites, such as Facebook Inc. Despite attracting nearly 500 million unique users a month, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said in July its second-quarter revenue fell 13% as its online advertising business continued to deteriorate.
Yahoo said upgrades to email were being rolled out to U.S. users Monday and to the rest of the world in coming weeks. The latest Messenger version is being launched globally Monday. Yahoo's redesigned search is still being tested and will be rolled out later this year. The upgrades are all free to users.
Write to Scott Morrison at scott.morrison@dowjones.com
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