The Yahoo of yesterday afternoon resembles the My Yahoo people should start seeing more of this afternoon. Today’s My Yahoo may be Yahoo tomorrow. Challenging, isn’t it?
Later today, many users of My Yahoo should start seeing a much different look to the customizable page. Some limited invitations have already been placed into Yahoo Mail boxes to try out the latest changes to My Yahoo.
Some of the new modules have not fully launched in the revised My Yahoo. Movie Showtimes and Inside My Yahoo content boxes displayed “Coming Soon!” messages at press time.
The immediate eye-grabber at the updated My Yahoo for many should be its similarities to the current Yahoo homepage, itself an updated presence from about a year ago.
Since this is Yahoo, and with updates comes the dynamic programming style that has been at the center of many of its other updated properties like Mail and News. That bar of Quicklinks on the left side of the page may be an immobile fixture on the front of Yahoo.
But on the new My Yahoo, a click hides those Quicklinks, and the other content expands to take advantage of the widened real estate. Doing a mouseover of previewed email or news stories opens a bubble with a snippet of content from that link.
Advertising has its place, and the premium top-right space carries ads for those willing to pay for such prominent placement.
The similarities between the Yahoo home page and this beta look like a sea change could be in store for Yahoo users. Arriving at My Yahoo now, without being signed in to Yahoo, brings up news content relevant to the users area. In our case, Kentucky news, sports, and commentary occupy three center content boxes.
That little geotargeting on IP address trick may be the inducement to bring someone into the signed-in My Yahoo family. That in turn gives Yahoo more information about its users and their interests, which can be used to enhance its advertising services to clients.
If My Yahoo has the potential to build on a membership already numbering around 50 million users, and keep them engaged with Yahoo properties, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the Yahoo of tomorrow look like the My Yahoo of today. There isn’t a good reason for Yahoo not to encourage a more personalized experience for its visitors.
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