Yahoo moves to offer RSS reading

Yahoo is offering RSS reading through email folders, in part countering moves by Google with their Reader web-based RSS aggregator. Apparently, posts show up looking like mail messages and can be forwarded or read in a way similar to the way mail is dealt with. They've also launched a beta of Yahoo Alerts which can send a text message, email or messenger alert when a feed updates.

It's nice to see Yahoo dipping into this in a unique way. Something different than the Google Reader approach. I expect this approach might appeal more broadly to the users that have a vague idea that they've heard of rss, but don't quite understand it yet. It looks like it is available only for U.S. users currently and maybe there are a few usability features to work on, but it sounds like a good idea. The first link above goes into some detail with first impressions of using it.