Yahoo Inc is offering free e-mail accounts under two new designations in an effort

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to attract Web surfers unhappy with their current addresses.

The California-based company expects to begin registering new addresses under the domains of "ymail" and "rocketmail" around noon PDT today (1900 GMT) at http://mail.Yahoo.Com.

It will be the first time that Yahoo has offered e-mail accounts under umbrellas other than its own company name since it became a correspondence conduit in 1997.

Yahoo began offering free e-mail shortly after its USD80 million acquisition of Four11 Corp, which included the rocketmail domain. Rocketmail users at the time of the acquisition were allowed to keep their existing accounts, but Yahoo had not accepted any new addresses under that name until now.

The diversification into new e-mail designations is being driven by the difficulty that people are having as they try to find an appealing e-mail handle under the Yahoo domain.

Most people prefer an e-mail address that's easy to remember, like the first letter of their first name in front of their last name, or reflective of a personal interest, like a hobby or favourite sports team.

But the popularity of Yahoo e-mail had narrowed the range of choices, forcing users to perform too many mental gymnastics to come up with an e-mail handle that had not already been taken.

"We realised we needed to expand the universe of Yahoo mail," said John Kremer, a vice president in charge of Yahoo's e-mail.