Yahoo has spent some time redesigning their personalized homepage, My Yahoo to give it a new Web 2.0 look and feel. It’s a private beta for now, but will be available to more people later on, and new features are expected as well.
Several years ago I created a personalized homepage with Yahoo, which at the time was hard to come by. Everybody seems to have personalized homepages today, but back then Yahoo was on top of their game. I signed in today for the first time in years so that i could compare it with the new My Yahoo. The screenshot below shows what their previous personalized homepage looked like. Ignore the tacky theme…
They’ve definitely spent some time creating this new version with the updated look (screenshot below). I created a page with the new Beta Service, and here’s what really stood out:
- The new look is easy on the eyes!
- Customization is everywhere
- Click and drag your mouse to place the content wherever you’d like it
- Create new tabbed pages up at the top, and create a new look for each one.
- Change the theme – select from different colors or textures
- Change the layout – select from 2, 3, or 4 columns, and a large or small search box.
Just a few days ago, Netscape launched their new personalized homepage, and one thing it was lacking for me was the tabbed pages up at the top. I’m glad Yahoo decided to do this because it makes organizing all of your content easier.
Much like the newly-designed Yahoo.com, they’ve added in the Ajax, as well as other design elements that make the two look a lot alike. Towards the top they’ve placed a “share content” option so that it’s easy to share content via email, or via IM. They’ve also included the “personal assistant” like what you’d see on Yahoo.com with quick buttons (that can be personalized) for mail, messenger, weather, etc.
A few other new features that you might enjoy:
- MyYahoo Reader offering full text feeds.
- Feed previews
- Pre-built personalized page based upon data Yahoo has gathered from your Yahoo usage.
- Interactive modules expected in the future
Overall Yahoo has done a great job of redesigning My Yahoo. The new look is easy on the eyes, and the customization options are great. What would be nice to see, as Read/Write Web points out, is Yahoo! Widgets integrated into this. It’s a no-brainer, and hopefully it will be added to MyYahoo soon.
NOTE: This is NOT a private beta, even AT&T users are allowed in
Sign up at the link below (not a waiting list like Y! mail beta was). Also, the old my Y! had draggable items and multiple pages (although they were in a drop-down rather than the new tab-like design).
[cm.my.yahoo.com]
This link was provided by download squad -
[downloadsquad.com]
The new version is very helpful, great that it adds support for other Y! betas (bookmarks, tv). At first the service seemed a little on the slow side, but now (perhaps due to caching) it loads very quickly -much faster than the old 1. Maybe this can even be improved as the beta test continues. Also, the auto-list of Y! services is kinda nice, but I’d really appreciate a custom list as well! Also, it looked horrible in my old “sports” theme, the new color choices are great, though!
I used to use My Y! but had to switch when the new yahoo.com rolled out, but now I think I’ll be able to jump back to my Y! as my home page. Yahoo! mail beta is becoming a good home as well, as it shows weather, feeds, calendar, news, contacts, not to mention mail!
I’m glad (and surprised) that Y! provided this service to AT&T as well as plain Y! users!
Yahoo has actually been surprising me lately with the innovations that they have been coming out with. I think they are really appealing to a lot of people who are looking for services that are easy to use.
I haven’t played too much with Yahoo! mail beta because it has been a little slow to load for me (normally 15 to 30 seconds to pull up) so I have been sticking with Gmail for the time being. While features in a mail client are important, it is also important that it loads fast.
Yah, now that I use DM2, I generally keep Yahoo! mail beta running in Fx in the tray while I’m on the computer to minimize loading. It’s a system that’s worked pretty well for me.
Yahoo! mail beta hasn’t had the best performance, but it has consistently improved and is still thankfully moving forward
I would much prefer the previous Yahoo Homepage vs. this new one for I find the newer homepage lacks a considerable amount of information that I normally use.
Many thanks,
Ben M. Cart