Home News Reviews How-To Blogs Videos Downloads Shop & Compare Community

Magazine

Audio & Video Business Center Cameras Cell Phones & PDAs Desktop PCs Gadgets Gaming HDTV Laptops Macs & iPods Monitors Printers Software Spyware & Security Storage Upgrading Windows Vista & XP

Resource Centers

Asus Notebook Center

Intel Technology Center

CDW Solution Center

Lenovo Laptop Showcase

Try It Free

White Paper Library

Webcast Library

First Impressions: Yahoo's Fresh New Look

For almost as long as there's been a Web, there's been a Yahoo. Its look, feel, and functionality have changed a lot over the years, mostly through subtle evolution. But today, Yahoo has launched a preview of its new front page (available at www.yahoo.com/preview), and an awful lot is changing all at once--in ways that are slick, functional, and even entertaining.

First, a bit of history. Here's a thumbnail of what the Yahoo front page looked like a decade ago:

Here's the default version of the front page at the moment:

And here's the preview of the new Yahoo:

So what's new? Well, at first glance, the most noticable tweaks may be that the Yahoo logo has been shoved over on the left-hand side of the page and the search box has been moved up, along with a link to Yahoo Answers. But what's really significant are the new navigational features all over the page, all of which give you quicker access to a wider range of stuff.

The Personal Assistant is a tabbed area on the right-hand side of the screen lets you dip into Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, weather, movies, local information, and radio without leaving the front page. Just hover your mouse over a tab, and the panel expands wth a preview of relevant information. Here's a peek at my inbox (when you click on a message, you go through to the full-blown Yahoo Mail):

And here's the Assistant showing a traffic map (which, by the way, you can scroll around):

Over in the middle of the page are a couple of tabbed panels that take you to less personal information. One's for "featured" content, entertainment, sports, and finance:

And the other is for news--general, international, and in video form:

Over on the left-hand side are links to a bunch of Yahoo sites, such as those for cars, kids, photos, and personals:

And if you hover over "All Yahoo! Services," you get a full menu with dozens of choices:

Finally, there's a panel called Yahoo Pulse that summarizes a topic in terms of what Yahoo users as a group are clicking on. You never know what Yahoo Pulse factoid/link item you'll get when you show up at the front page...but here are a few I saw:

So what's the bottom line on the new Yahoo front page? It cleverly puts a lot more information within a single click, and the Personal Assistant, in particular, is slick and interactive. It's not just useful, it's fun to use...which, of course, has always been true of Yahoo's best efforts. My first instinct was to compare it with Google's personalized home page feature, but in fact they're quite different. The Google page lets you create a much more customized selection of information panels, but you've got to put some effort into building a page. And it doesn't have the space-efficient tabbed approach that squeezes more tools into the same amount of space. In some ways, it's less like Yahoo's new front page and more like My Yahoo, which is still around and far more customizable than the front page.

However, the final version of the new Yahoo front page should be at least a little more user-configurable than the preview--for one thing, Yahoo told me that you'll have the ability to move panels around on the page. One other customization feature I'd like to see: the ability to put one or more RSS feeds on the the page. (Given how many inventive things Yahoo is doing with RSS, I'd say there's a strong chance it'll get around to offering something along these lines.)

Already, the new Yahoo front page is certainly worth a look, whether you already spend a lot of time at Yahoo or are more likely to head for Google. (Or, like me, you manage to find yourself at both sites many times over the course of a typical week.)

Those are my first impressions--if you check out the preview, c'mon back when you're done and share yours...

Comments

The Page is designed well.
Even the look and feel is good.
The users may not find that diificult in changes made, since this page is well designed and has good feel too.

Jagadeesh.A

May 16, 2006

3:55 AM PT

wow yahoo finaly learned css i never like yahoo myself but thing is the MAIN thing google is used for is searching for things on the web and thats what it does and it makes it easyer than yahoo and has a much better selection of searches

Anonymous

May 16, 2006

5:45 AM PT

It just like MSN?????
I thought they have many good designers?
Instead they just copier.. :(

I'm disappointed...

James

May 16, 2006

10:53 AM PT

...Web designers need to learn how to make cleaner layouts. It's too busy... simplyer the interface the better.

Hoxy Epoxy

May 16, 2006

11:08 AM PT

MSN copiers? C'mon, give me a break! All I can say is: Harry McCracken has gone a little too much further in finding all de good things of Yahoo's new face -much further than I, that is!
Good Job.

luciano

May 16, 2006

11:18 AM PT

yea, it is busy, but not as busy as the old one.

Zane

May 16, 2006

1:46 PM PT

I ain't thankin' 'bout Yahoo. I have been waiting 7 months now for the beta of the new mail interface. I was supposed to be one of the first-to-see-it testers, and I have heard nothing since about December of last year.
Yahoo? They're nothing to me but a couple junk mail catching email addresses and a news headline or two.

Toulinwoek

May 16, 2006

2:21 PM PT

I have used Yahoo since 1995. It almost never fails to find what I am searching for. As for the new look it is functional which is what most of us crave.I read the other reviews and find that spell check would be very useful for pages that offer a comment section:)

Ray Ingram

May 16, 2006

2:31 PM PT

Awful. It's just like their new mail beta, which widens the page by a few hundred pixels and causes you to have to scroll horizontally (or widen your browser more than normal) to see the whole page. I keep a lot of windows open on my desktop and I hate having to maximize my browser every time I want to check my Yahoo email. Yahoo needs to have more respect for peoples' screen space.

Bob Dobolina

May 17, 2006

8:02 AM PT

current yahoo home page look like
dog vomit. yahoo and msn doesn't
seem to get clue from google.

Senthil

May 17, 2006

8:24 AM PT

Looks OK, but it doesn't work with IE 7. Why not? What's incompatible about IE 7?

Andrew

May 17, 2006

9:59 AM PT

IE 7 is just a beta!! It's not surprising it doesn't work!

It does work with firefox, so make the smart switch to the best broswer!

I like the new home page. I had seen it on IE awhile ago, but was just able switch to it in fireox, last week? i think.

To the guy who was compaining about not being able to use the new mail beta, there is a fix and I found it ON THIS SITE! Just look around, it's really easy to find.

Anonymous

May 19, 2006

8:54 AM PT

Excellent!!!

This is the ultimate homepage; I just had to make it mine (sorry My Y!).

Just once again re-affirms that Yahoo! is the greatest!!!

Hey Y!, keep up the customization, I love the grass color and am really looking forward to customizing which of your uncountable Y! services

netster007x

May 20, 2006

9:55 PM PT

i have used yahoo for ages and its kl

kirsty