Search Engine Panel

According to Reuters, Yahoo has been working hard at a new design for their homepage. This new homepage still hasn’t been rolled out for most web users, and Yahoo states that less 15% of them are being fed the new design. Here’s a screenshot of the new homepage (click to enlarge).

At first glance, the “new” homepage has a very similar look and feel as the current one. Both designs feature news articles down the center column with thumbnails and excerpts. This reinforces Yahoo’s goal of positioning itself as a “starting point” of the Internet, than simply a search engine. But then again, Yahoo has always been a portal… so are there really any differences between the two designs?

One key difference between the two homepages is the possibility of further personalization for each individual user (with a Yahoo account). All of the account-level links such as Mail and Weather have been moved to the left sidebar, with a button at the top for adding even more applications.

Despite the potential for making your homepage more uniquely useful through links, there exists few appreciable changes from the old design, and the new homepage isn’t all that innovative. In fact, Yahoo could have simply added an “Add Application” link to their current homepage and more or less achieve the same effect.

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