After Google Talk with Gmail earlier this year, Yahoo! will integrate an Ajax version of Yahoo! Instant Messaging directly into the new Yahoo! Mail beta so users can chat and see when contacts are online, even if they don’t have an instant-messaging application installed. Unlike Google, Yahoo! is combining the products into a single interface.

Michael Arrington caught a peek of the new beta and reports that each new IM can be triggered when users are online, popping up in a new tab within Yahoo email.

Read more: Yahoo to embed instant messaging in e-mail - CNET News.com

Yahoo! Mail Beta and Integrated Instant Messenger

Yahoo Mail continues to surge in worldwide and U.S. usage v. Gmail - Yahoo claims that Yahoo Mail gained more new U.S. users that in the first nine months of 2006 than total U.S. Gmail users to date. Comscore backs this claim up, reporting 250 million worldwise users of Yahoo Mail to Google’s 51 million (September 2006).

Kudos Yahoo! I use Yahoo! Mail and Instant Messenger Big time and can’t wait to get my hands on new features. Yahoo! says they will launch in the next two months.