Its not bad design. But I think it takes away from their image and is leading them in a wrong direction. It has nothing to do with the tradition of yahoo, but a step towards the traditional news guru’s , e.g. CNN and MSNBC. Which is fine if they plan on becoming news orientated. But they arn’t. They are looking for so many ways to defeat google and trying a way to out do them, that it has finally come to this. This is defintly not the answer. They need to try and figure out how to optimize what they have now.

SO I actually like it. I hink teh busy site is actually better compartmentalized. Yahoo has always suffered from having too mcuh content on its site. This definitely eases things up. I wonder what they’ve set in place to ease navigation.

Smoother fonts and 3D title bar changes take away from Yahoo’s image and lead them in the wrong direction?

The content is exactly the same. I don’t see the connection.

It has no character, no soul. Faceless portal with the Yahoo! logo.

I think the design is OK. It’s definantly less overwhelming and “compartmentalized” as was stated.

But I do think that they are on the wrong focus as well. Their main focus was(is?) a search engine, is it not? Why not focus on making their search engine better, with better features? Are they tapped out of ideas?

Now their a news aggregate and the free AOL of the internet?

Seems like their just trying to be “hip” to design now. Even if that is Web1.0 standards.

Perhaps, though, this is a plan of attack. That this is going to be part of a series of updates to Yahoo! as a whole.

How do I get the option to use the new layout?

This isn’t really new news. Amr Awadallah talked about it on his blog back on Feb. 13. Here is his entry on this:

http://www.awadallah.com/blog/.....xplosions/

I agree with the others that say this design takes Yahoo in the wrong direction. Still it looks more organized than the current interface.

Looks like AOL. stank. not good. Is yahoo merging with AOL? Junk in that trunk.

I do not know about the exact direction in which this new site design would take Yahoo. However, I do like the new design and a site makeover was long overdue. For a portal, the redifining of strategy is of paramount importance. And that too when there is competition hitting back. But a news-centric first page might be a good change. At the same time, the accessibility of other usual features is right there nicely outlined on the main page itself. Does that really take away the direction and the focus? Just leaves me wondering …

I prefer the current design. Something looks out of balance with the new one. But then again, I never use their front page anyway. I go to news.yahoo every once in a while and have to say the new design seems kind of modeled after that one. The News page is much better though with the darker grays and navy blue.

Yea, this is back from mid February, posted info on it at http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003301.html

I too agree on the above comments: the design is okay but the direction is wrong. The top 3D-thingy is quite nice but it’s something with the content body that just don’t feel Yahoo at all. It’s like a bad msn.com theme.

They keep rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic. Cosmetic changes, is that all there is?

You can’t see the new site if you’re running firefox, or any netscape based browser.

You think yahoo needs to hire some more programmers to make the site firefox compatible?

i hate left navigation.

I don’t like it. It looks like the old CNN and any other web portal design.

Who cares about the home page - how about updating the my.yahoo.com page? Google and other ajax sites are leaving yahoo in the dust.

Does anyone remember when they used to have little *NEW* graphics next to the categories that had new websites in them.

You’ve come a long way baby.

It’s Ugly… I hope it doesn’t pan-out.

agreed. with all the AOL UI folks going to yahoo… i have to agree it’s starting to look a LOT like AOL… :-\

I was one of their select users until I installed the IE7 Beta. Frankly, I hated the new layout. I always loved Yahoo’s clean, organized look and feel. The new one is messy and overloaded.

i dont like it

Very drab.

Steve
http://www.networking-forum.com

John B not once did I say anything about content. If your impressed by small things like 3d logos and cool fonts than please don’t crotique me.

Nice reading material
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

I look at users abilitiy to smoothly browse a site, look for content, on a familar level. People searching MSN & Yahoo are two different crowds. Doing this will totally throw off their immediate viewing population. Being one the same design scheme and layout as MSN leaves them to content comparison at that point. Right now Yahoo And MSN are different in design, visually. This helps users easily distinguish what they want their preference to be.

My Summary? Site has no character. Period.

Looks like it may be customizable, note the page layout options that are in the bottom left. Maybe users will be able to customize the new home page like Google and/or Netvibes.

Finally, it is time that Yahoo improves their websites. With a lot new technology coming up, Yahoo should really harnass the present technology in order to keep up with the cutting edge, with the competitors, especially Google and MSN.

Yahoo’s current home page is neet and clear then this one.

I don’t know. Yahoo has had their old page for quite a while.

Would be interesting to use eye tracking technology to evaluate the two designs: http://www.etre.com/usability/eyetracking/showme/

If you use DSL from SBC this has been your Yahoo! look for a couple months already.

I agree the old page is cluttered - I never visit it. However, I dont really like the new page either. We already have “My Yahoo” to put news etc on. What I think the homepage of Yahoo needs these days is something that presents all the yahoo tools. They do so many things and manyof them are unknown or unused because we just dont see them.

Looks like… A CNN with smoothed edges?

Seen it weeks ago. It was sporatic, but appeared every now and then for me weeks ago.

I got the page too. It’s in a F shape format. From previous DIGG story.

Yawn.

Seriously, Yahoo has how much money…and this is the best they can do?

Looks nice, but where are the ads on the new version? In other words, expect to see more junk soon.

Bad Change.
Hope they will keep the current design.

I think it’s an improvement vs. the current one in terms of navigation and content lay out. But yes, they can do better. The home page should be a combination of stadard features like the ones presented in the mockup above with personalized elements that are currently only possible on MyYahoo.

hello!??? it is so AOL……
can yahoo just make something unique?

I almost like it, if I don’t see the current website before.

I have been using the current website for a while, and I would say that the current website, though less graphics, gives more personality. The uniqueness of Yahoo homepage so far is its text oriented (my opinion) and that’s why Yahoo is Yahoo, in the amidst of other flashy, graphic-oriented websites. So the new version one doesn’t differentiate itself anymore. 3 out of 5

very bland. very AOL. very overdone.
doesnt feel like yahoo anymore.

a new design isnt a bad thing, but it has lost the “yahoo flavor”

I think it looks too much like msn so i dont really like it.

The real question here is why were you looking at “Drug Rehab” at the same time? Pick up an addiction recently Michael?

looks like msn.com

this is the problem with yahoo! As many people have stated, it looks like AOL, or a new MSN, or CNN or something. Yahoo just doesn’t have a real personality that leads to consistent product design. When Google comes out with any new product, anyone can see a glimpse of it and immediately say “Ah, that’s Google”. The same can’t be said about Yahoo since they’re inconsistent in design.

They’re just putting a new coat of paint on… not that interesting. New strategy would have been more fun to debate.

They moved the Directory–the one thing that I liked Yahoo for, and the one thing that I think made them the page to use in the first place–so you now have to click about 3 times to get there. The previous revision minimized it to one of the boxes at the bottom of the page, but now that’s gone too. Oh well. Anyone know any good sites to make my new home page?

Glad to see it’s finally lost the directory layout. It wasn’t working for the huge mess of content that needed to be squeezed in there.

Now they need to fix the mess.

Smaller area occupied by adverts, more information, better organization. Looking forward to it!

where are the ads?

Reminded me of CNN’s site. Pity. I prefer clean and light, perhaps not to the extreme of Google (which BTW reflects its function really well).