Muglia is a 22-year Microsoft veteran who joined from Rolm in 1988 and was the first product manager for SQL Server. The news comes as Microsoft announced a preview of its next generation Enterprise Resource Planning, Dynamics AX 6. I’m told there’s no connection between the timing of the two.

Muglia would be the third division head to leave Microsoft in recent memory. The others are Stephen Elop who left to run Nokia last year, and Robbie Bach, who ran Microsoft’s entertainment division.

Muglia only been elevated to the job two years ago, nearly to the day. The Server and Tools Business is at $14.9 billion in annual revenue (fiscal 2010) Microsoft’s third largest division behind the Windows/Windows Live Division and and the Microsoft Business Division, both of which reported revenues north of $18 billion in 2010. On Muglia’s watch sales at STB grew more than 12 percent, and its operating margins went from 31 percent in 2008 to 37 percent in 2010. However, STB is nowhere near as profitable as the other two divisions: Business Division reported operating margins of 63 percent in 2010 while Windows saw 70 percent. Ballmer says in his memo that he’s eager to see stronger growth from STB.

Muglia is described by people I’ve talked to as a capable, well-respected manager who has over the years weathered the various corporate storms that have hit him, and usually come out on top. In 2002 for instance, he was replaced as the head of Microsoft’s .Net initiative. Reports at the time said he had requested the change out of frustration with the business model. By 2003 he was running the Windows Server Division and in 2005 was tapped to run STB as a senior vice president. He’s also been the key executive on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform.

Ballmer’s memo to Microsoft employees is below.

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: STB – Building on Success, Moving Forward

There are very few $15B businesses in the software industry, and Microsoft is the only company that has built three of them. While Windows and Office are household words, our Server and Tools Business has quietly and steadily grown to be the unquestioned leader in server computing. We have driven the industry forward and established the foundation for an entire generation of business applications. We have overcome significant competitive challenges. Over the past twenty years, the outstanding leadership from everyone involved in STB has made it a $15B business today.

We are now ready to build on our success and move forward into the era of cloud computing. Once again, Microsoft and our STB team are defining the future of business computing. In October, we completed an incredibly successful PDC where we detailed the future of the cloud, outlining Platform as a Service and demonstrating the rapid advancement of Windows Azure.

The best time to think about change is when you are in a position of strength, and that’s where we are today with STB – leading the server business, successful with our developer tools, and poised to lead the rapidly emerging cloud future. Bob Muglia and I have been talking about the overall business and what is needed to accelerate our growth. In this context, I have decided that now is the time to put new leadership in place for STB. This is simply recognition that all businesses go through cycles and need new and different talent to manage through those cycles. Bob has been a phenomenal partner throughout this process, and he and his leadership team have the right strategy in place.

In conjunction with this leadership change, Bob has decided to leave Microsoft this summer. He will continue to actively run STB as I conduct an internal and external search for the new leader. Bob will onboard the new leader and will also complete additional projects for me.

Bob has been a founder and leader of our server business from its earliest inception. He has led our Developer, Office, and Mobile Devices Divisions, and key parts of Windows NT and our Online Services business. I’ve worked with him in many capacities over the years and I’ve always appreciated his customer focus, technical depth, people leadership skills, and his positive energy. I want to thank Bob for his hard work, many accomplishments, and his focus on putting Microsoft first for 23 years.

We enter this new decade with STB providing the platform for today’s business solutions, and uniquely well-positioned to drive the future of cloud computing. I believe STB will continue to lead the industry with outstanding products and services for our customers and exceptional results for our business.

Thanks,
Steve

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is certainly in the midst of a media bonanza.

Aside from all the heat over its recent investment whatever with Goldman Sachs, the young entrepreneur has been touted on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and been selected Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Oh, yes, and that movie–”The Social Network”–which you just know is going to win some Oscars on February 27.

Now CNBC has just aired a documentary on the huge social networking site, titled–appropriately–“The Facebook Obsession.”

There is no new interview with Zuckerberg, and it’s essentially the same story about the Silicon Valley wunderkind, told yet again. But all the old video clips and photos collected all together on another television show are nice.

Also, I always enjoy the Winklevii spouting off hambone arguments about why they are owed more than $65 million for Zuckerberg’s kneecapping of them back at Harvard University.

And, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-me appearance, I also make a showing, apparently as the grumpy one.

But I did not see it, as CNBC did not deign to post the entire report online, as “60 Minutes” so kindly did.

CNBC did do a preview and provide some clips, which are embedded below, as well the the much funnier Jon Stewart take on it all on “The Daily Show,” titled “The Anti-Social Network”:

The event is set to kick off shortly and Mobilized will have live coverage here.

1:05 pm: Well, despite timely warnings to get in our seats beginning at 12:45, it’s now five minutes after and the techno is still pumping.

1:11 pm: Okay. Getting started. Loud music gets louder. Cue video.

Tony Melone and Marni Walden take the stage and CEO Daniel Mead (at least I think it is Mead) is doing an intro.

1:15 pm: Another video now playing with partners. Since HTC CEO Peter Chou is in there, I think it is probably safe to say their oft-rumored LTE smartphone will make an appearance.

1:16 pm: Samsung and Ericsson execs also in the video.

1:17 pm: Verizon exec now touting the advantages of its 4G network including its spectrum, which it says will give it the best in-building coverage.

Also talking about how it is sharing its spectrum with rural service providers.

1:18 pm: Mead: “We’re very pleased to be part of bringing broadband to rural America.”

1:21 pm: Mead hands off to CTO Tony Melone to talk 4G and LTE.

Melone says that the company knows there is a lot of skepticism of the company’s move to go straight to LTE but that the bet is paying off with more networks and running faster than planned.

“The customer feedback we are getting is everything we had hoped for and then some,” Melone says.

Melone talks about 4G LTE plans.

Thirty-six months from now we will have the nation covered with LTE, Melone says. Two-thirds of the population will be covered in 2012. This year alone, he says, Verizon will add 140 new markets, including places like Little Rock, Detroit and Sioux Falls.

1:26 pm: On to devices.

Ten devices coming by mid-year being shown on stage: Four smartphones, two tablets, two notebooks and two mobile hotspots.

1:33 pm: LG CEO shows off the LG Revolution, what appears to be a slimmish smartphone.

Next up, Skype’s CEO talks about a new partnership that will allow for Skype to be always on and integrated into the address book of all of Verizon’s LTE smartphones,

1:34 pm: He’s followed by HTC CEO Peter Chou, who introduces the HTC Thunderbolt.

Chou says he’s been personally testing and using the Thunderbolt, which features the new Skype video chatting along with HTC’s Sense user interface.

“Let me tell you, it’s blazing fast,” Chou says.

Other features include a built-in 4G hotspot and a 4.3-inch Super LCD screen.

1:37 pm: He thanks Qualcomm and Google engineers that worked together to create the device, so guessing this one isn’t using Nvidia’s Tegra chip.

Next up is Electronic Arts VP Travis Boatman. EA’s mobile games lineup ranges from Monopoly and Tetris to Need for Speed and the FIFA 11 soccer game.

The new mobile version of Rock Band for Verizon’s LTE network lets people form a band and remotely jam over the network.

Samsung executive goes onstage to show off three devices for the LTE network, One is a mobile hotspot, one is a smartphone and the other is a 4G version of the Galaxy Tab.

Phone packs 4.3-inch Super Amoled Plus display, which is said to boost colors and offer improved display. It’s got an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with HD video and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

The tablet has a 1.2GHz processor developed by Samsung, while the hotspots provide connections to up to five users at a time.

Most impressive is the fact that the Samsung executive pulled all three devices out of various pockets.

Marni Walden shows off the remaining devices–a Novatel MiFi hotpot that works with both 3G and 4G networks.

There is also a Compaq Netbook, an HP notebook, as well as the previously announced Motorola Xoom and Motorola Droid Bionic.

1:47 pm: On to Q&A (hoping laptop No. 2 holds out through the end of question time.)

First question has to do with LTE speeds, which often exceed the 5- to 12-megabit speeds promised. Mead says that the company’s goal is to meet the promised speed range once the network is fully loaded, something that is not the case today.

Next question is on battery life. Melone says the company believes it will be able to meet customer expectations in that regard.

The company says it won’t announce pricing or rate plans for the 4G products, beyond noting its current prices for 4G laptop cards and service.

As for simultaneous voice and data, Walden says the company intends that at least some of its 4G launch devices will support talking and accessing data at the same time.

“It could be on some devices and not all,” Walden says.

Walden also confirms all the phones it showed Thursday are running Android.

1:55 pm: Asked about net neutrality, Mead says that what the industry needs is “unfettered development.”

“We think the free market system works very well, and we don’t need a lot of heavy intervention.”

The best way to see it is by downloading the TV Guide iPad app, where you’ll find it prominently displayed. It’s like any other “in-app” ad you’ve seen before–click on a banner, and you get a barrage of multimedia–except that in this case it’s intensely fun.

It helps that the ad is for a movie, which translates perfectly on the iPad. And that the movie fuses action, nerddom and nostalgia. And Jeff Bridges!

And note that Apple has always understood the appeal of movie trailers and the Web: Remember when Apple’s movie trailers site was one of the most novel and well-trafficked places on the Internet?

So if you’re wondering if the iPad is a great place to advertise movies via iAds, that question should be answered. The real question is how the format will fare for other products: So far, Apple’s pricing and control issues have made iAds on iPhones and iPods less than a resounding success.

But that’s business talk! Ignore that for now! Get your iPad out and go look at the pretty moving pictures!

No iPad? Then you’re going to have to imagine. Here’s a screenshot:

And here’s a shakycam video:

This one is going to have the geeks packing the seats–it has all kinds of tech doodads, a duel to the death inside a videogame and cool motorcycle thingamabobs.

In other words, another trailer for the eagerly anticipated movie sequel to “Tron,” called “Tron: Legacy.”

It opens December 17.

Here’s the latest preview:

Yahoo will announce its first-quarter earnings after the markets close today and have a call with Wall Street analysts at 2 pm PT.

BoomTown will be liveblogging the proceedings, of course.

Until then, here are preview reports about Yahoo (YHOO) from a pair of sharp analysts: Imran Khan of J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Mark Mahaney of Citigroup (C).

Overall take: Recovery mode for the Internet giant, due to an upswing in display advertising online, which has been a good thing for the stock. It has risen smartly to prices above $18 in recent weeks, closing yesterday at $18.39.

Khan:

Yahoo Inc: 1Q’10 Earnings Preview: Expect Display Ad Recovery to Continue

Overweight

We are modeling Yahoo! 1Q revenue to be flat on a Y/Y basis (down 8% Q/Q) to $1.16B, slightly below consensus of $1.17B. We expect Yahoo! to achieve 1Q pro forma EPS of $0.14 vs. consensus of $0.13. Given macro-economic improvements as well as company specific changes, we feel that there may be upside to guidance of gross revenue of $1.58B to $1.68B and our estimate of $1.63B.

Display advertising should recover. We are modeling 7% Y/Y growth (down 21% Q/Q) on O&O display revenue. This would be an acceleration from last quarter’s down 1% Y/Y performance. We feel confident in our estimate and think there could potentially be upside as the ad environment improved throughout the quarter and we see guaranteed inventory showing the largest improvement. We note that page views on the homepage, Yahoo! sports, and Yahoo! finance were up 5% Y/Y, 24% Y/Y, and 2% Y/Y during the quarter, according to comScore data.

Search market share shows signs of stabilization. However, despite this positive data point in March, we continue to expect 1Q search revenue growth to underperform Google due to modest market share loss earlier in the quarter, and as advertisers are moving ad dollars from the Yahoo! Platform in anticipation of the migration to the Microsoft Platform. We are modeling 1Q O&O search revenue to decline 10% Y/Y (3% sequentially), as comScore data suggests US queries declined 10% Y/Y.

Margins should continue to improve. We feel good about our EBITDA estimate of $370M, roughly in-line with consensus of $372M. Our EBITDA margin est. of 32.1% implies a 370 bp Y/Y decline as we expect increased marketing spend. However, we think there may be upside to this number.

Key things to look for on the call. We are hoping to attain more insight into Microsoft synergies, the ramp-down of search related expenditures and the outlook on search RPS.

Reiterating our OW rating. Yahoo! trades at 6x our F’10 EV/EBITDA vs. the large cap peer group ave. of 12x. We think this discount is unjustified and reiterate our OW rating and $21 price target.

Mahaney:

From: “Mahaney, Mark “
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:18:10 -0400
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: Flash: YHOO: YHOO Q1:10 “Cheat Sheet”

Yahoo! is expected to report Q1 earnings on April 20th, after the close. For the March quarter, we are looking for Gross Revenue of $1.63B, Net Revenue of $1.16B, EBIT of $100MM and GAAP EPS of $0.09 vs. consensus estimates of Gross Revenue of approximately $1.63B, Net Revenue of $1.17B, EBIT of $108MM, and GAAP EPS of $0.09. Based on intra-quarter channel checks and our model sensitivity work, we believe Street Q1 estimates are reasonable, with no material signs of upwards or downwards variance. We do note that YHOO will give additional detail on one-time payments and cost savings from the YHOO-MSFT Search deal, which received regulatory approval in Q1.

Read-Thru From Google’s Q1 Results–We believe GOOG’s Q1 results provided a modestly positive read-thru for YHOO’s Q1 EPS results. Google’s U.S. revenue growth showed Y/Y acceleration (even after we adjusted for its Nexus One sales), and Google noted that it saw strength in every vertical, including Retail, Travel, Entertainment, Finance and CPG. Google also noted that Q1 showed a resurgence among large advertisers. We note that Yahoo!’s business is heavily weighted towards the U.S., and that its key verticals include Finance, CPG, Autos, and Entertainment. Finally, YHOO has a strong focus on large, branded advertisers, so we believe Google’s Q1 results should provide a positive outlook for YHOO Q1.

Our YHOO Q1 “Cheat Sheet” [see embedded below]–On page 2, we provide a one-page grid of what we would view as Positive, Neutral & Negative results for YHOO on Key Q1 P&L Items, Key Q1 Underlying Metrics, and Q2 Guidance. This Cheat Sheet will hopefully provide a guide to interpreting YHOO’s results.

We reiterate our Buy & $22 PT–Our Long Thesis: 1) YHOO will participate in an Ad recovery that is already showing real traction on the ‘Net; 2) New management focus significantly increases odds of sustained operating margin expansion; 3) YHOO has highly attractive Asian Internet portfolio & 4) @ 6X ’10 EV/EBITDA, YHOO shares don’t fully reflect 1, 2, 3… We view YHOO as the Large Cap Internet Turnaround/Value Play.

Link to our full note: https://www.citigroupgeo.com/pdf/SNA54039.pdf

SNA54039

That’s the result of a small but consequential move Apple (AAPL) made last fall when it began showing Web searchers full-fledged previews of the stuff it sells at its online stores instead of directing them immediately to the store itself.

The biggest impact appears to be on the 140,000 apps Apple sells, which seem to be getting increased visibility from Apple’s links. So says Weldon Dodd, who has put together an interesting study of apps and search results over at The Apple Blog.

For most of Apple’s best-selling apps, Dodd found, Apple’s preview links are likely to turn up on the first page of Google (GOOG) results, and usually much higher up than the developers’ own pages.

So Apple, in effect, is performing search engine optimization on behalf of its developers. That’s the good news. The bad news is that developers don’t have control over or insight into the process. Which means it’s that much harder for them to direct traffic in a retail environment that’s already tightly policed by Apple.

[Image credit: Stig Nygaard]

MSN, which launched a beta version of a radical new homepage design in November, is releasing it to all its 100 million monthly U.S. customers within the next two weeks.

The wide rollout by the Microsoft (MSFT) portal will include its most significant online marketing program yet on sites such as the Hulu video and Pandora radio services–although it won’t cost nearly as much as the $100 million the tech giant is spending to hawk its Bing search service.

While the new MSN homepage is not radically different than the preview version Microsoft has been testing on 10 percent (and, more recently, 25 percent) of its user base, after consumer and testing feedback, it includes: A larger search box; more local features, such as hyperlocal Twitter feeds; and more multimedia content, including in-line videos.

“We have gotten a lot of great response to the new site, so we think everyone should be using it,” said Scott Moore, MSN’s U.S. executive producer. “We’re particularly encouraged about how usage of light and medium users has grown.”

Presumably that’s because the new MSN homepage has been drastically simplified, with a white, cleaner look that calls to mind the design ethos of Apple (AAPL).

I suppose if you can’t beat them…

The launch was the first major upgrade of the MSN main page in a decade, part of an overhaul the software giant has been doing throughout its money-losing online services division to spur innovation.

That includes the launch of Bing last May, which has been a relative success for Microsoft, adding a small amount of search market share and, more important, some much needed respect to its long-beleaguered consumer Web efforts.

Whether putting the new MSN in front of all its consumer will work or not remains an open question. Together, MSN and Windows Live have about 100 million unique monthly visitors, putting Microsoft typically third behind Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO).

Here’s the official blog post from Microsoft, as well as more videos that you want to see of MSN senior execs in Microsoft-made interviews about the changes:

New MSN Homepage offers search, news, local and social networking–all in one place

Today is an exciting milestone for MSN. We are beginning the launch of our new homepage to our customers in the US. The new MSN homepage offers search, news, local and social networking–all in one place. We encourage you to try the new homepage today and learn more about the many cool features.

Since the preview of our new homepage began in November, we’ve been very busy gathering over 70,000 pieces of customer feedback and introducing over 30 updates in our quest to deliver the best homepage to stay in the know.

Here are a few things we learned and new features we introduced to address customer feedback:

Bing, Bing, and more Bing. We’ve seen double-digit increases in Bing search queries coming from the new homepage. People wanted even more Bing, so we:

· Increased the prominence of the Bing search box to make it easy for you to search from the MSN homepage.

· Added a new TrendWatch feature to highlight the day’s top movers on Twitter.

· Increased the prominence of Popular Searches, where our editorial team highlights the most interesting and topical searches of the day.

· Increased editorial programming of search-related content, including videos and images.

· And, we’re currently testing a Search History feature so you can more easily find information you typically search for.

Local is a home-run. We knew people craved local information, but we’ve been surprised by how quickly our local offering has taken off. The MSN Local module on the homepage is driving over 50% more traffic to our new local offering, MSN Local Edition. This site already has over 9 million unique users every month, making it the #4 online newspaper in terms of unique users, and the leader for page views. MSN Local Edition, which uniquely covers the entire country across 42,000 zip codes, continues to innovate, introducing new features like:

· Hyper-local Tweets, which uses the power of Bing to highlight tweets from your location

· My Cities lets you personalize MSN Local and save up to 3 cities to follow–making it easy to keep up with your friends or family across the entire country.

· With partnerships with NBC Local Media and Hearst Television, MSN Local Edition now offers 3,000 news video clips a week across 36 local markets.

You love images and news. The main module on the new homepage, which features a prominent image, receives over 50% more clicks than our original homepage. We’re continuing to offer more multi-media on the new homepage–including launching the availability of in-line HD video today. Now you can watch HD video in-line on the MSN homepage with minimal buffering. We also learned:

· The design of the new page was largely positively received, but we heard from some MSN loyalists that they missed our traditional blue background. So, we tested many different versions of our design–including an entirely blue background–and it turns out most people prefer the clean, white background we introduced with the preview–with a touch of blue highlighting the top of the page.

· The tabs on the new homepage allow us to highlight different categories of news and many different headlines with less clutter–we learned you love lots of news headlines to choose from, so we added more tabs and made the navigation easier so you can easily access the wealth of information on MSN.

· Social networking is handy to have on the homepage. Most of you appreciate the all-in-one offering of the new MSN homepage–including the ability to check your Hotmail, Messenger and favorite social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, right from your MSN homepage. We realized we could make social networking even easier, so now our social network module defaults to the social network tab you use most frequently (Facebook, for example).

These are just a few of the many themes we learned and have been working on over the last few months.

Because we want to ensure every customer has a great first experience, we’re taking our time to roll it out, but all of our 100 million customers in the US will have the new homepage within the next few weeks. Today marks an important milestone for us, but we’re going to keep working hard to hear your feedback and deliver more great experiences across MSN.

Bob Visse (general manager, MSN Product Management Group):

Cyrus Krohn (director of online services programming, MSN):

Erik Jorgensen (corporate vice president, MSN):

Scott Moore (U.S. executive producer, MSN):

Two and half weeks or longer to wait for a critical patch.

In the meantime, exploits for the flaw will no doubt grow in number and cunning–a nightmare since the PDF format and Adobe’s related apps are so widely used. “Right now we believe these files are only being used in a smaller set of targeted attacks,” security group Shadowserver said in an advisory on the matter. “However, these types of attacks are frequently the most damaging and it is only a matter of time before this exploit ends up in every exploit pack on the Internet.”

Shadowserver recommends disabling Javascript in Acrobat and Reader to limit exposure to such attacks. There are, of course, other solutions as well–Foxit for Windows users, Preview for Mac users, and Xpdf for Linux users.

Two and half weeks or longer to wait for a critical patch.

In the meantime, exploits for the flaw will no doubt grow in number and cunning–a nightmare since the PDF format and Adobe’s related apps are so widely used. “Right now we believe these files are only being used in a smaller set of targeted attacks,” security group Shadowserver said in an advisory on the matter. “However, these types of attacks are frequently the most damaging and it is only a matter of time before this exploit ends up in every exploit pack on the Internet.”

Shadowserver recommends disabling Javascript in Acrobat and Reader to limit exposure to such attacks. There are, of course, other solutions as well–Foxit for Windows users, Preview for Mac users, and Xpdf for Linux users.

I have a 3-year-old PC, which has a single physical hard disk divided into a small C drive that is almost full and a larger D drive that has lots of empty space. I know I can move stuff from C to D, but how can I either merge these hard drives or somehow make D the automatic destination for files I download?

You can merge the drives into one larger C drive, or redistribute space between them, by using what’s called a disk-partitioning utility — a program that rearranges the space on the hard disk without erasing your files. One I have tested and found that works well is called Partition Magic and is sold by Symantec.

Short of doing that, you can change the settings in programs you use to download or save files so that they store the files on your roomier D drive. Not every program has such a setting, but many do. These settings are usually found in the options or preferences sections of the software. For instance, in the latest version of the Firefox Web browser, go to the Tools menu, select “Options,” and, under “Main,” in the Downloads section, you can specify a folder on your D drive where it says “Save files to.”

In your review of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader, you praised its ease of downloading books, but criticized the hardware design. You seemed to prefer the design of the Sony Reader, which costs $100 less, but said it offers fewer books. If you had to choose between them, which would you pick?

Neither is a compelling product. However, putting aside price as an issue, I would choose the Kindle, despite its design problems. The Sony is slimmer, sturdier and, unlike the Kindle, it isn’t prone to accidental button-pushing. But Amazon’s device can download books directly, without the need for a PC. Sony’s can’t. And Kindle’s online catalog of compatible titles is 90,000 books, more than triple the number Sony offers.

Unless you absolutely crave an e-book reader now, I’d suggest waiting for a system that’s better than either. However, if you’re going to invest $300 or $400 now in a device to read electronic books, you would likely want the one with the widest selection of titles and the quickest, easiest downloading process. And that’s the Kindle.

I use Outlook Express for my email. I have been getting a lot of offensive junk mail I’d rather not even view for a moment. Is there a way to delete incoming mail in Outlook Express without having to first view the contents?

You can avoid automatically viewing the contents of your email in Outlook Express, and many other email programs, by turning off the preview feature. In Outlook Express, click on the View menu, then select “Layout…”, and uncheck “Show Preview Pane.” Then, click OK. After that, you will have to manually open each message to view its contents.

However, you may have to open some emails anyway in order to decide whether to delete them, since spammers often use deceptive sender names and subject lines that make it hard to decide if they are worthy of deletion. So, you might consider installing an antispam program.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

The result is a polished, fairly powerful email program that I prefer to Google’s much-hyped Gmail, which is undergoing an even longer gestation. It has been in beta status since April 2004.

I’ve been testing the new Yahoo Mail on both Windows and Macintosh computers. It has some downsides, but it beats Gmail, in my view, both in terms of features and in terms of its ability to act like a standard computer program rather than a Web page, something for which Gmail often gets more credit.

A closer competitor to Yahoo Mail is actually Microsoft’s Hotmail, now called Windows Live Hotmail. But Yahoo tops Hotmail, too, in my opinion.

The new Yahoo Mail, which works in Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows, and in Firefox on the Macintosh, is now more than just an email program. Like Gmail, but unlike Hotmail, it has a built-in instant-messaging module. You can choose to communicate with any of your contacts via a real-time chat, right from within Yahoo Mail, as long as that contact is online and has an IM account on either the Yahoo or Microsoft instant-messaging networks. You don’t need to be running your IM program.

Unlike either of its competitors, however, the new Yahoo Mail also allows you to exchange text messages with people on cellphones, although the message exchange must be initiated from Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo Mail offers unlimited storage of emails and attachments free of charge, and a very fast and good search capability — like Gmail’s — so you can keep years of messages on hand and retrieve them quickly. Gmail offers 2.9 gigabytes of storage free. It sells extra storage for prices ranging from $20 a year for six gigabytes to $500 a year for 250 gigabytes. Hotmail is in the process of boosting its storage to five gigabytes, free, and 10 gigabytes for $20 a year.

With Yahoo Mail, you can send attachments of up to 10 megabytes per message and 20 megabytes if you opt for a $20-a-year plan that also eliminates the annoying banner ads that litter the free version. Gmail offers attachments of up to 20 megabytes free. Hotmail allows 10 megabyte attachments and 20 megabytes under its $20-a-year plan, which also banishes ads. Gmail has no banner ads, just text ads that run alongside the emails and can’t be eliminated.

This new Yahoo Mail is gradually being rolled out in coming weeks. The company still plans to retain the older version of Yahoo Mail, now called Classic, for people who prefer it, or for those using browsers that are incompatible with the new version, such as Apple’s Safari.

The new Yahoo Mail allows you to do things that once were impossible in a Web-based email program. For instance, you can drag messages to new folders, or select a group of messages in the same way you would with a standard email program, to delete them or mark them as read or unread. Unlike in Gmail, when you right-click on a message you get a list of options that pertain to the mail program — like “Reply to Sender” — instead of options that pertain to the use of the browser — like “Add to Favorites.”

Also, Yahoo Mail features a very nice tabbed interface that Gmail and Hotmail lack. With this interface, which is separate from the browser’s own tabs, you could have your inbox in one tab, an instant-message or text-message conversation going on in another and a new email you are composing occupying yet another. You can move among these tabs without losing the content in any of them.

And like Hotmail but not Gmail, Yahoo Mail offers a preview pane, like Microsoft’s Outlook, so you can see the contents of an email without opening it. Gmail offers just a “snippet” of the message content. Unlike Gmail, which forces you to view your emails as bunched-up “conversations,” Yahoo Mail — like Hotmail — displays them as a standard email program does, sorting them by date, sender, subject or size.

So what are the downsides of Yahoo Mail?

Well, the biggest is probably that unless you pay for the $20-a-year premium plan, you can’t view your Yahoo mail account in a standard email program such as Outlook or Apple Mail. Gmail allows this free of charge. Hotmail allows it free in Outlook and in Windows Mail, though it will soon announce the capability for other email programs for premium members and, eventually, for free members as well.

Also, I found Yahoo Mail could sometimes be slow. When I created a new folder and tried to drag 200 emails into it, I was warned that I couldn’t do that because the new folder was “still being created.”

But overall, Yahoo did a really good job making its online mail program versatile, powerful and accessible.

Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Google has made the occasional minor tweak but until recently, its search-results pages looked a lot like they always have. Its upstart competitor, Ask.com, took greater strides last year with cool features such as previews of the pages it listed, lots of summary information at the top of the page and prominent suggestions for narrowing or broadening searches.

Now, Google and Ask each have rolled out new ways of presenting search results. Google’s approach, which it calls “universal search,” is a modest thing, a first step in what it says will be a long effort to break down barriers between different types of information a user may be seeking, such as Web links, images and news.

But Ask’s new system, called “Ask3D,” is a much bolder and better advance in unifying different kinds of results and presenting them in a more effective manner. It shows, once again, that Ask places a higher priority than its competitors do on making search results easy to navigate and use.

Both new systems are now the defaults on the search sites. You don’t have to do anything special to use them. Indeed, Google’s change is so subtle you may not even notice it for some searches.

Both of the new systems are designed to spare users the extra steps needed in the past to view different types of content related to the same search term. But Google combines these different types of content into one list. Ask puts them on one page in separate sections, which I find to be the superior approach, because each type of result is displayed more effectively; it’s easier to see at a glance what you have.

In the old systems, if you were searching for, say, “Red Sox,” you’d have to do separate searches for Web pages, news, images and so forth.

To make this simpler, Google’s universal search now groups these different kinds of results within its single, familiar main list of results. As I write this, a Google search for “Red Sox” includes not only Web links, but also an entry called “News Results for Red Sox” with the latest headlines about the team and a news photo. At the top of the page, under the Google logo, are the two most relevant search categories — in this case, Web and News — if you want to separate types of results.

A Google universal search for a prominent person might bring up images at the top — something Google has been doing for a while — but also a video, which can be played without leaving the search page, a very nice feature. To see an example, search on “I Have a Dream,” to view the famous Martin Luther King speech without leaving the page. At the bottom of the page is a list of related searches.

But Ask3D goes much further. Instead of sticking with a single list of search results that mixes various types of material, it now presents results in a page divided into three panels. The largest, middle panel still contains Web links (and a few ads). But it is no longer topped by the search box and links to other sections of the search engine. Instead, where possible, it is topped by a set of salient facts or direct links to salient facts.

The thinner left panel contains the search box and links to other sections of Ask, but mainly it displays suggestions for refining your search, or for making related searches.

A somewhat wider right panel contains search results that go beyond Web links, such as images, news headlines, encyclopedia articles, videos, weather information, local time and, where relevant, music clips you can play without leaving the page.

A search for “Red Sox” in the new Ask3D, for example, has a summary box at the top of the main panel with direct links to Scores, Schedule, Stats and more. In the right panel, there are general images, news photos, an encyclopedia article on the team, videos and headlines. As always, the left panel shows suggestions for how to narrow or broaden the search.

If you hover over the image thumbnails, they enlarge. If you hover over the video thumbnails, they play, albeit without sound. For each of the right-panel content categories, you can even launch a further search without leaving the page just by clicking on a magnifying-glass icon.

If you search Ask for “James Taylor,” you get a biography at the top and, at the right, playable clips from “Fire and Rain,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Sweet Baby James.”

Ask also now gives you larger previews of the pages it lists, visible by just hovering over a binocular icon. And you can now get to the advanced search panel without leaving the page.

Google deserves credit for universal search, which I’m sure will get better. But Ask’s new design is much more compelling and well worth a try.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.