The New Yahoo Homepage Revamp Print
Since Yahoo is one of the most highly trafficked websites in the world, their recent decision to change their layout offers a great case study for website layout.  The Yahoo identity is one of the strongest on the web, and the value of retaining that identity is worth many millions if not many billions to the company.  Changing the look could have a very dramatic and negative impact on their business.  For example, although Google says their "I'm feeling lucky" button is almost never used; when they did actually remove it - the use of their standard search was significantly diminished.  Lets take a look at the history of Yahoo, and why their new change reflects some critical website design components that we also encourage.

 1996 Yahoo Homepage
y1996
 		 The original Yahoo.  Very simple, and way before Yahoo became what it is today.
 1999 Yahoo Homepage
y1999
 		 The first upgrade divided the listings into two columns, and pushed most other information to the bottom of the page.  As you can see, in 1996, there was little more than a privacy policy and about us page at the bottm.  In 1999, the had grown to a sizeable number of pages.  You may also be able to notice their promotion of the new yahoo finanace stock ticker function just below the logo.
 2002 Yahoo Homepage
y2002
 		In 2002, Yahoo created a third column which directed Yahoo users to new Yahoo services.  This functionality helped to give Yahoo extremely strong loyalty.  Visitors could now use the site as a general home base rather than just a portal to find other websites.  You wil also notice that the listings were pushed down to make room for other sections of Yahoo, but the top header still remains relatively unchanged.
 2006 Yahoo Homepage
y2006
 		This time Yahoo divided the page into a total of five columns (three main columns, and two subdivided columns.)  However, this is not the most immediate change.  Those cute little icons that have always shown at the top of the page are now gone.  These are replaced with the complete listing of topics in the left column, with much smaller icons beside each section.  The search form which had been slowly moving down the page, has now been bumped right back to the top.  Interactive features have also been added to allow the page to transform, depending on where your mouse is on the page.

So, the ultimate question is: will this change be good or bad for Yahoo?  Only time will tell, but consider the following, and you will probably conclude that there is little question that these changes will have a very positive impact on Yahoo.

  1. The concept of Web Page Screen Real Estate
    • The top part of a page is the first thing a visitor looks at when they come across a new website.  Visitors will read less and less as the page continues downward, with a sharp decrease at the page break (the point where the user would have to scroll in order to see more).  For this reason, the top part of the page is very valuable screen real estate, and the bottom of the page is not.  Yahoo has somewhat ignored this knowledge by the placement of rather large logos at the top of the screen surrounded by quite a bit of dead white space.  Yahoo has now done an excellent job of re-designing their site to bring more information to the top of the page.
  2. Standard Navigation Practices
    • Although many designers continue to develop non conforming websites, most websites use a left column for full navigation, and sometimes the top for special / or frequented pages.  This makes it much easier for visitors to navigate through the site.  For years, Yahoo had placed the majority of the navigation just below their header, but they too now have their navigation menu down the left column.
  3. Moderation of advertising
    • It seemed for a while that the Yahoo homepage had become nothing more than clickable banner advertisements.  Although this practice may have delivered substantial advertising revenue, it would have a very negative impact on the website over the long term.  It could be that Yahoo has now decided to limit its advertising to times when the visitor is indicating an interest in making a purchase.  However, it is also possible that Yahoo has only temporarily limited advertising during the launch of the new homepage.
Although the new homepage certainly has plenty of other features that could be listed, these concepts are offered to help our visitors consider how to apply the same practices used by very large companies to their own websites.