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A couple of days ago, Yahoo rolled out their new cosmetic changes to their homepage. It doesn’t look terribly different to me, and they took away my favorite feature of the Yahoo homepage – the ability to preview my newest emails. The homepage aspect to Yahoo’s new look is slightly enhanced. As with the old version the top gossip stories appear on the top of the page, and news stories are found on the heart of the page. However the most interesting feature of the page is the ability to add your favorite websites on the sidebar. I like this feature, but is it really necessary? If you are say a Safari user, your top bookmarks are already in clear view under the address bar. If you are a web browser power user, you probably already implemented similar bookmarks toolbar on your browser of choice. So again, interesting feature, but I’d be interested to see how often people use it.
Yahoo is still a search engine underneath the new makeover and it is still nowhere close to touching Google on that front. So if I’m not searching on Yahoo or using the bookmarking system which is already found on my web browser what is Yahoo good for? Yahoo games! Yahoo has a community with its java based games, notably Pool, Chess, Literati, and Texas Hold ‘Em. Why not build on that platform and turn Yahoo more into a social networking platform where users can post commentary on the stories that appear on the homepage? They have all the tools for it: the Yahoo chat client has been around since the dawn of IM, they have a popular (if flawed) email service, and their brand is still a household name. I won’t suggest Yahoo drop its search platform (even though it will never catch Google) but I think Yahoo needs to stop emulating and start innovating. Create a platform where its existing user base can easily communicate with one another, use the Yahoo Games platform to form micro-communities and I think Yahoo becomes a strong contender. I hope they can turn their act around, but it will take more than a marginally improved interface to increase their revenues.
A couple of days ago, Yahoo rolled out their new cosmetic changes to their homepage. It doesn’t look terribly different to me, and they took away my favorite feature of the Yahoo homepage – the ability to preview my newest emails. The homepage aspect to Yahoo’s new look is slightly enhanced. As with the old version the top gossip stories appear on the top of the page, and news stories are found on the heart of the page. However the most interesting feature of the page is the ability to add your favorite websites on the sidebar. I like this feature, but is it really necessary? If you are say a Safari user, your top bookmarks are already in clear view under the address bar. If you are a web browser power user, you probably already implemented similar bookmarks toolbar on your browser of choice. So again, interesting feature, but I’d be interested to see how often people use it.
Yahoo is still a search engine underneath the new makeover and it is still nowhere close to touching Google on that front. So if I’m not searching on Yahoo or using the bookmarking system which is already found on my web browser what is Yahoo good for? Yahoo games! Yahoo has a community with its java based games, notably Pool, Chess, Literati, and Texas Hold ‘Em. Why not build on that platform and turn Yahoo more into a social networking platform where users can post commentary on the stories that appear on the homepage? They have all the tools for it: the Yahoo chat client has been around since the dawn of IM, they have a popular (if flawed) email service, and their brand is still a household name. I won’t suggest Yahoo drop its search platform (even though it will never catch Google) but I think Yahoo needs to stop emulating and start innovating. Create a platform where its existing user base can easily communicate with one another, use the Yahoo Games platform to form micro-communities and I think Yahoo becomes a strong contender. I hope they can turn their act around, but it will take more than a marginally improved interface to increase their revenues.
