Yahoo Gets A Facelift

Old Yahoo Look

Yahoo unveiled their new look on their home page this week.  Yahoo says “This new launch represents the most significant change to our homepage since the company’s inception.”  The problem for Yahoo is that few have seemed to have noticed.

As of the time of the writing of this post, the old Yahoo! look is still the default home page.  Across the top of the browser is the message “Take a sneak peek at the new Yahoo! Homepage” with a button reading “Try it now!”

At first glance, I do like the new look.  I like the My Favorites on the left side bar.  In this menu there are links to websites like Yahoo! Mail, eBay, Facebook, Dow Jones Finance, Games and more.  If you want to add more websites to your favorites you click the add button at the top of the menu.  There you will find several other websites that Yahoo recommends and you have the ability to add your own URL and name it as a link.  From this menu you can also easily remove links from your favorites.

New Yahoo Look

The left column is smart, although not terribly original.  It reminds me of iGoogle or even AOL’s cluttered version of this application.  Yahoo! Is hoping that users will take the time to customize this section as it will make for a great starting page when logging on to the Internet.

In the middle column is the bulk of the content with a featured new story with an image at the top.   Immediately below that are four thumbnail images with a news title that you can scroll through.   At the bottom of the column you have News, World, Local, and Finance tabs to choose from for news updates.  You have the ability to move the news feed to the top of the column if you choose.  Just below this box is a market update with a stock symbol search box that is sponsored.

The right column has a box with popular searches at the moment so that you can see what other people are searching for right now.  Below that is where the ads start.  First, there is a banner advertisement.  Below that is a box that you can scroll through with Yahoo! options like Yahoo! Auto, Yahoo movies, recommended photos and more.

The bottom of the far right column has an advertisement with an eye catching icon that rotates each time you refresh the page.

At the top right of the page there are to buttons to note.  The first is the question “What are you doing?”  There you can answer that question which is reminiscent of twitter or a Facebook status.  But why?  As far as I can tell, it goes not further form there.  Perhaps this is something that Yahoo plans to build on.

The second button worth mentioning in the top right is a Page Options drop down menu.  There you can change the background color of the Yahoo! home page.  You also have the option to switch to compact view which would be good for small screens.

There has not been a lot of buzz about the new look of Yahoo!, but I think that it is an improvement.  I believe that more people would enjoy it being their home page now when they open up their browsers.  It brings you quick links to your favorite sites, up to the minute news, a glimpse of what’s hot right now with the popular searches, and there is a potential in the new “what are you doing?” button.