I remember Loren asking me if I have seen the new Yahoo portal when it was still in close beta. Well, I would have seen a preview had I entered the correct URL then. But that’s all in the past now as Yahoo has just officially unveiled the newly redesigned Yahoo Homepage. Did Yahoo delivered something new to the table? Well, certainly. As you log in to Yahoo’s homepage the first thing that you’d notice is the left sidebar which is labeled – My Favorites followed by a plus sign. This sidebar as you’ve probably know by know are a list of more than 60 web applications that you can add to your Yahoo Homepage. Think of it as the counterpart of Facebook apps. Only this time, these Yahoo apps include Facebook itself.
Adding this web apps/properties of course will bring in whatever contents they to your Yahoo Homepage. Nice, right? If users would be willing to add these web apps, that would mean longer time user eyeballs on Yahoo’s homepage. It’s the simplest way of looking at it if you’re wondering why Yahoo put that feature.
Yahoo’s My Favorites sidebar can also be construed as an iGoogle-like feature. Only this time, the app does not take the form of widgets.
Now, here’s an interesting feature. If you hover on the individual “Favorites” a Yahoo partner’s add will be displayed on the right portion of the homepage. But not all web apps that were preloaded into the homepage will have those ads, I guess only those business/trade related “My Favorites” will display those ads.
The overall theme is ok. Nothing fancy, just plain old items with dashes of Yahoo’s official color – Violet.
Have you tried it? How would you rate the new Yahoo homepage?
