Free text messaging via Yahoo Mail!

Yahoo has apparently upgraded their webmail and part of the experience is free text messaging to phones in the USA and Canada!

The new Yahoo! Mail enables people to select how they want to communicate with their online contacts: via e-mail, instant message or text message to a mobile phone number. With the introduction of this text messaging feature, which is built on Yahoo!’s IM platform, people can now choose to send free text messages from Yahoo! Mail to mobile numbers in the US, Canada, India and the Philippines in real-time without leaving the Web mail experience. The feature is seamlessly incorporated into the new Yahoo! Mail, and is as easy as entering a mobile phone number, typing a text message and hitting send.

Very cool. And for iPhone users, an easy way around the 200-per-month limit on your AT&T text messages. Of course, it is only free on the SENDING side. Per-message charges may still exist on the RECIEVING side, so be sure to check before you send.