Yahoo! is planning to launch its new homepage ahead of schedule. It will go live for many U.S. users this afternoon, followed later this year by users in France, India and the United Kingdom.
The company has been working on the new homepage since 2007 and originally didn’t plan on launching it until later this fall. For the time being, the site will remain as an “opt-in beta,” meaning users will have to click on a link to select the new design. The main difference between the new site and the old site is that users can now customize the page with various widgets and apps.
The best part is that those apps don’t have to come from Yahoo. While some apps have been pre-created by the company, the new site allows users to have apps from other popular sites, including Google’s Gmail. Users also will have the ability to create new apps for sites.
There are currently about 60 applications available. Users can add the apps they like to a section on the left side of the page called “My Favorites.” Simply scrolling over an app will bring it and any accompanying advertising to the forefront of the page, as shown in this photo from TechCrunch.
The new homepage will include more personalized status updates from various social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. In addition to adding all the personalized content, Yahoo has removed a lot of links to its own services.
Looking ahead to the future, in August, users will have the ability to select what type of news they can see by using a slider that ranges from “fun” to “serious.” On top of that, users will be able to sync the customizations between their mobile and desktop versions of Yahoo!.
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July 21st, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Wow! yahoo has a home page with apps. What will they think of next?
Oh wait. Didn’t Google do that years ago?
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 am
So I can’t use any of the customization tools unless I sign up for a Yahoo account? Wow… They just don’t get it. What is this, AOL?
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
i think its a pretty great step for yahoo — the page is simplistic and easy to use — yahoo seems to have its branding getting more alligned — i really like the facebook app
yeah google had apps years ago — but so did yahoo — myyahoo has always had apps – just wasnt the homepage unless you made it that way (just like google)
and you cant use the customization tools unless you have an account — um, yeah — unless you’re up for customizing it everytime you sign on, i’d think you’d want to sign in so your customization is available the next time you’re on. i can’t really think of ANY site where you customize without signing in.