tag:,2009:/1/tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517- 2009-10-30T13:21:00Z Comments for Yahoo Tests New Front Page - May Eventually Replace My Yahoo! Movable Type 4.23-en tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517 2008-11-12T19:54:14Z 2008-11-12T20:44:28Z Yahoo Tests New Front Page - May Eventually Replace My Yahoo! Yahoo today announced that it is bucket testing a new design of its front page. The new design was built on top of the latest version of Yahoo's UI Library, which, according to Yahoo, will accelerate performance and give third-party developers the ability to easily create applications for the new front page. It is not... Frederic Lardinois yahoo_logo_purple_nov08.pngYahoo today announced that it is bucket testing a new design of its front page. The new design was built on top of the latest version of Yahoo's UI Library, which, according to Yahoo, will accelerate performance and give third-party developers the ability to easily create applications for the new front page. It is not clear when this new design will become widely available, but for now, it is only available to a random subset of Yahoo's users.

]]> Yahoo has a history of slowly but surely introducing new web technologies into its homepage. Back in May 2006, we covered an early beta of a new Ajax-powered design for yahoo.com. The emphasis back then was on personalization, news content and community - as we noted in 2006, it was a definite move away from the 90's 'everything under the sun' portal. That design went live July '06. Then in May '07 we covered the re-design of the My Yahoo! property, noting then that over time My Yahoo! (a personalized homepage) and the yahoo.com frontpage would likely merge.

Third-Party Services, More Customization

Today's announcement is mostly geared towards developers, but judging from an earlier post on Yahoo's official blog in September, it is clear that Yahoo will provide its users with the ability to customize the home page to a far greater degree than is currently possible - perhaps in line with the 2007 goal to bring it closer to the functionality of My Yahoo!.

Yahoo's overall goal for the yahoo.com redesign is to give mainstream users a one-stop home page that allows for checking multiple email accounts and accessing personalized applications, while still keeping the look and feel of the old, familiar front page.

yahoo_homepage_redesign_nov08.jpg

The new front page is clearly part of Yahoo's overall goal of opening up its services. At the same time, it also looks somewhat similar to AOL's latest redesign of its its portal. AOL's new front page also features a customizable sidebar and lets users access third-party services like Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook.

What About My.Yahoo.com?

Of course, with My Yahoo, Yahoo already has a highly customizable portal solution. It is not clear if the front page redesign will also be extended to My Yahoo, but the screenshots of the new home page we have seen so far do not feature a link to My Yahoo anymore. This leads us to believe that Yahoo might be slowly abandoning that service in favor of the redesigned front page.

Update: RWW editor Richard MacManus added some further detail to the post, based on our 2006-07 coverage.

]]> tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517-comment:116705 Comment from Michael Sean Wright on 2008-11-12 Michael Sean Wright http://nicefishfilms.com/blog It's a good step forward for Yahoo! If Yahoo! is to be the platform that Jerry Yang envisions, third-party developers will have to be given more access. The more I hear Yahoo! engineers talk, I'm convinced that the company is heading in the right tech. direction. While Google is seen as the "scientists" who are focused, Yahoo! is still faces a murky jumble of initiatives. Yahoo! continues to be a classic case of corporate disconnect. The drive for revenue consistently interferes with user experience. If we are to use Yahoo! again they must improve the UI. Clear the clutter, stop beating us over the head with noise. Negative space makes me stay longer. Please give us some room to breath on that front page.

They are becoming very robust under the hood, now let's see some clear intent with design. Three months after hearing about the new front page coming, I'm still waiting (and hoping) that Yahoo! will jump forward through innovation.

]]> 2008-11-12T20:32:12Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517-comment:116707 Comment from Anrkist on 2008-11-12 Anrkist That's a nice looking page... but isn't it time to ditch the 90s clip art for their services?

I think Yahoo! is on the right path with integrating all of their services into one location. Something I think Google should look into.

]]> 2008-11-12T21:00:30Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517-comment:116708 Comment from Sebastian on 2008-11-12 Sebastian http://sebmos.at/ Interesting enough, this screenshot looks good enough that I can actually imagine using this start page. iGoogle, Netvibes and all the others are crap in my opinion, especially because I don't like their looks.

Sadly, Yahoo only releases their new products for the US market and always takes time before they release it to other markets.

]]> 2008-11-12T21:10:49Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517-comment:116801 Comment from Susan Priddy on 2008-11-13 Susan Priddy http://EliteCustomGifts.com I'm hoping they will open this up to more than "a random subset of Yahoo's users"! I wonder if a person were to send an email to them asking if they could be included in this testing what they would say?
I think this would possibly benefit my web site, http://EliteCustomGifts.com especially if they would be connecting to any of those authority sites as described like "FaceBook" or "Kaboodle"! Something to be thinking about...

]]> 2008-11-13T23:10:53Z tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2008://1.12517-comment:118411 Comment from ronnie on 2008-11-29 ronnie what are the pluses & the minuses between my yahoo & the redesigned front page for yahoo. so far the appearence of the new front page looks real good.

]]> 2008-11-29T13:15:58Z