Yahoo's Got a New Home Page

Yahoo has announced that they now have a new home page, which you can access at the usual Yahoo place -- www.yahoo.com. Look at it with something besides Opera, though, because with Opera all you get an error message and the old page. While it's pretty and all, it makes me a little nostalgic and a little sad.

The upside of the Opera error message is that I can put the old layout next to the new layout and compare the two. One thing strikes me at once: the Yahoo Directory is fading more and more. On the old layout, there was an entire portion of the page devoted to Directory linkage. On the new page, there's no mention of the directory that I can see outside a search tab (and not even one of the first three search tabs. It's not even listed on the Yahoo Services nav on the left. GEOCITIES, for crying out loud, got listed, but not the Yahoo Directory. OH, THE HUMILIATION!

A lot of the changes seem to be cosmetic. The logo is left now instead of centered as it always has been. There's one graphic ad that's noticeable but not overwhelmingly in your face. (I always remember Yahoo's home page as having more graphic ads than it actually does.) A subtle switch on the right side of the page allows you to change the color layout. Tabs are put to good use for news and featured items.

And then there's the dynamic aspect of the page, which is why it won't work in Opera, apparently. On the upper-right of the page, under the text that says, "Check Your Mail Status" are several icons linking to Yahoo services and information. Hold your mouse over them and you'll get popout boxes that encourage you to sign in to access services or provide information without your signing in (like new movies opening or the weather, if you'll provide your zip code. There's a nifty local module that takes your zip code and provides a map with either traffic or weather incidents.

The layout's easier on the eyes. It doesn't strike me as horribly antiseptic the way the Yahoo News page makeover did. The repositioning of the logo makes me nostalgic, and the increased sinking of the Yahoo Directory out of the spotlight makes me sad. But hey, if you're going to do that, where are the heirs apparent? Why don't I see mentions of Del or Flickr on Yahoo's new page?

Posted to Search Engines-Yahoo