New AOL Home Page Shows Yahoo Influence

If imitation truly is the greatest form of flattery, as the saying goes, then Yahoo should feel quite flattered right now. AOL's beta of its new home page looks remarkably similar to that of Yahoo's current home page design. The similarities between the two separated-at-birth sites are evident in the two screen captures seen below.

I've always respected Yahoo's home page--most notably for its generally clean look and feel. In an era of too-many pull-down menus and advertisements winking at me from every which way, Yahoo's comparatively Spartan page is like a welcomed oasis amidst the chaos of the Web.

AOL has taken Yahoo's design, and improved on it with subtle interface tweaks that enhance usability and readability. Both designs pack a similar configuration of information. Both have a modular design with a directory nav bar at left, and featured news and headline news (including basic stock market info) components stacked in the middle; at right are quick-launch buttons for key services, with an advertisement beneath that.

I like some of the tweaks AOL has made. For starters, the left nav bar panel lacks the Yahoo panel's graphical texture and uneven font sizes, making it slightly easier to read. Furthermore, by identifying the nav panel as a "Directory," AOL makes it clearer to its audience that this your launch pad to subsections within the AOL site.

Yahoo offers more variety in its top center module: You can choose from four tabbed categories--for featured stories, entertainment stories, sports stories, or life (a catch-all for lifestyle pieces ranging from recipes to HDTV facts) stories. For now, AOL's top viewer teases top stories in different sections, with a five-page feature viewer that automatically scrolls through

Overall, I think the AOL page--though not perfect--looks even cleaner than the Yahoo page. Sure, I get annoyed by plugs for AOL services I won't use, but the local section--with local info, traffic, and gas prices, is more meaningful to me as a user than Yahoo's "Pulse-What Yahoos Are Into" component, placed in a similar location on that page's real estate. Likewise, AOL's Shopping section has a broader appeal than Yahoo's "Today's Search Highlights."

Then again, I question just how much the home page matters anymore. Personally, I hardly ever stop at Yahoo's home page; instead, I just rely on the My Yahoo page I've already customized and tweaked to suit my interests.

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