Yahoo's Zimbra launches next edition of email software

Reports have claimed that Yahoo wants to sell Zimbra

Yahoo's Zimbra has launched the latest major edition of its open-source email suite.

The release of Collaboration Suite 6.0 (ZCS 6.0) follows reports that Yahoo is trying to sell off the firm it acquired at the end of 2007 for $350m (£219m).

The Zimbra suite provides email, contacts, calendar, search, voice over IP and document-authoring tools.

The ZCS 6.0 update will extend the applications to third-party developers, as well as improve enterprise collaboration through new calendaring, sharing and extended mobile support, the firm claimed.

"Key features in ZCS 6.0 were determined by thousands of votes from the Zimbra community, enabling us to build a premier email and collaboration suite to address top requests, meet market demand and position us to continue our strong global growth," said Zimbra general manager Jim Morrisroe.

A new tab will allow customers to integrate third-party web applications, offering better customisation and control of mash-ups within the suite, according to Zimbra.

Zimbra users will also be given a three-pane email view and improved visual view of appointments when using the calendar. Zimbra has added read receipts to emails, as well as the ability to sort emails by size and attach files more easily.

To give users an enhanced mobile experience, Zimbra said that security updates such as remote device wipe will protect sensitive information. Users can also now search their Zimbra contact base from a mobile phone.