So this is a little on the slow side for reporting a major story...

...but if you are coming here you are probably not looking for recent news, but comments with a little attitude; plus, maybe a little insight from someone that has bought a ton of media. As reported by every major news site (some listed below), Yahoo! is in the midst of rolling out a new homepage. Just go to Yahoo.com and hit the link in the upper right hand corner to test it out for yourself.

Ok, the first thing you should notice is a much wider page which I think is awesome. Also, search is at the top of the page which hopefully foreshadows renewed focus on that platform. \he page has a silvery feel to it which makes the ad units stand out more. I also like the module in the right hand corner that pulls in your weather, IM, and mail right on the page and expands when you roll over in that new section. The right hand ad unit stands out more than ever before and I also like the marketplace section on the bottom left, but unfortunately it is below the fold. The final ad unit is the text link at the top of the page which is a very interesting spot.

It is too bad you can't customize the section with your content in it and bring your own news feeds in. I wish they would have had a unit that said MyNews and then had it expand out. One has to wonder what the point of a MyYahoo page is (besides the customized news) and what the long-term plan is for it besides the trash bin. I could also do without the Yahoo travel section which occupies valuable real estate, especially for someone that doesn't travel a lot. Personally, I wish it was a finance section. The only other negative I can see is the duplication of MyMail units which seems like a complete waste of space.

From an advertising perspective I think it is a home run. You now have three positions on the page with obviously three different levels of importance. The right hand mantel unit (Yahoo lingo) is the premier spot, with my guess the tex link at the top right costing more than a link in the marketplace section. I've advertised on Yahoo's homepage back in September 2003 and I couldn't get enough of it. The page generates tremendous amounts of traffic and with the help of the Yahoo! team it performed very well. As I recall, it generated about 10% of my average monthly visits to my acquisition landing page in one day.

Here's a comparison of the old and new pages:

Old page:

New page:

More Yahoo story links:

* WSJ JOURNAL - basic reporting of launch
* TECHCRUNCH - old and new site shots, but the commentary is pretty good
* CLICKZ - a little more detail plus information on AJAX which lets users add content on the fly without leaving the page (middle content on page)
* CNET - quick post but includes quotes from Jerry Yang and information on which browsers can see the new site
* CNET #2 - I love this one. It shows the transformation of Yahoo's homepage through the years. As pathetic as this sounds, I remember that first homepage when I used to slog through the world wide web using my Compuserve account. Those were some times especially when I used my black and white AT&T laptop.

I think that's a great recap of Yahoo's new face-lift (pat on my back). As a whole I think it is a great balancing act between advertiser's needs and user's needs which is what you should expect from the professional management team there. I only wish they would have given me an expanding news unit.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric