Testing, Testing…New Yahoo! Homepage, More
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Written By Reprise Media | March 3, 2006 | Share This
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Looks like Yahoo!’s testing a new homepage design (we’ve got a screenshot
). It seems like they’re trying to encourage more people to search, since the search box has been moved up to the top of the page, sharing the banner with the Yahoo! logo (which has been shrunk and shunted off to the left); a random Yahoo! Answer is now appearing below the search box as well. Yahoo! Services have been moved into a single column on the left hand side, and each one is now adorned with a colorful icon. The Marketplace and News boxes have been shifted around, and there’s a new one called Y! Pulse; it looks to be a USA Today Snapshot-style random statistical blurb - our shot shows a listing of “Most Popular Beaches.”
“And cancel that giant ‘Y!’-shaped pool.” In other Yahoo! news, a New York Times story says that Lloyd Braun, the head of Yahoo!’s Media Group, is dialing down plans to turn Yahoo! into an online version of ABC, his old stomping grounds.
Braun had previously touted a grand vision to produce TV-quality sit-coms and reality shows for the engine, including the revival of a defunct ABC game show pilot called “The Runner,” in which contestents would compete to capture a ‘fugitive’ for a shot at a million big ones. Now, instead, he says they’ll concentrate on user-submitted content and the acquisition of programming from existing sources. They won’t shelve existing projects - including a series of war reports called “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone” and the travelogue “Richard Bangs Adventures” - but Braun says that “Original content is the salt and pepper on the meal…it is certainly not the engine driving this.”
Observers probably won’t be too shocked by this development. Producing a Hollywood-style television show (particularly one that plans to just give away a million bucks) is expensive, and Yahoo’s January ratings for “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone” accounted for less than a quarter of a percent of Yahoo!’s total monthly users; conversely, user-submitted content costs approximately zero dollars.
But for a guy who comes from an industry largely run by people who wear sunglasses indoors, Braun sounds like he’s humbled and ready for Yahoo! team play. “I realized I have to check my ego at the door for a moment,” he said, “and really take a hard look at who should this business be built for the long term - a business that is not dependent on a series of expensive one-offs to survive.”
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where can I find the new homepage design in html format please help me